300 children from Gaza to be brought to the UK for free specialist NHS care

[Fragmentedbrain]

According to the Sunday Times. That's nearly as many beds as there are in Great Ormond Street, where the average waiting time for paediatric surgery is 15 weeks (which is fairly typical nationwide).

Why is it mysteriously possible for government to deliver these showy, headline-grabbing measures (I know we already knew it could happen from COVID policy) but not to just make systems work well in an ordinary way?

The cost of treating the 300 children and potentially supporting their families to stay in the UK, is a fraction of the cost of the weapons the UK have supplied to Israel.

I did say that Gazans must support Hamas for Hamas to exist.

I did not say or imply that Gazan children don't deserve help.

I also tried to clarify that these children are being treated by NHS, in contrast with many posters saying that it's funded privately.

Do you want to charge these children for their treatment?

Some of you are seriously off your tits. Do you have any idea how unhinged it sounds to want to deny care to a few hundred kids who've have limbs blown off or had their entire health infrastructure leveled to dust? Jesus wept. I despair.

Specialists in the NHS: specialist who work in the NHS. That doesn't mean the NHS is paying for it - doctors can and do donate their time. Just because you and your ilk on here do not understand the human talent for altruism doesn't mean it isn't a thing.

The point is there are rich countries closer to them who have taken many and can afford to take more. We can't afford to even with a charity 'working in parallel' with NHS Drs.

I just don't think people believe it. We will have to pay in the end, we always do, someway or other. My compassion has been blunted with seeing this rinse and repeat over the years, there is a Govt inquiry and 'lessons learnt' but they aren't. So now I am just 'Nope!'.

Because once here, they'll stay, bringing the rest of their family to join them. We don't send anyone back to war zones.

It's up to 300 children, ofcourse we can afford it.

You just don't want the NHS to treat these children

Good god.

That is what is generally known as 'a you problem'. Not everyone has lost their moral compass.

No one wishes to deny healthcare to the kids of Gaza, certainly no one with a shred of decency or humanity. No matter where your loyalties lie, no one can blame Israeli or Gazan kids for this situation. They are quite literally innocents.

However you're not wrong to wonder how extra capacity can suddenly be squeezed for one thing but not the other. It's not a question on where the extra help is going to, it's a question of how is extra help in any way feasible if services are at max.

They're clearly not, are they?

You say ‘we don’t send anyone back to war zones’ as if it’s a bad thing.

And why would that be an issue?

This is always true of government funding. No money for education, health and the police (last government) but can give an obscene amount of money to Rwanda on a scheme doomed to failure, or to their mates down the pub for inadequate PPE.
This is a really odd thing to pick to have a problem with. This is a good thing to do.

If you have lived in the Middle East, you’d know that Gaza is not an 8 hr flight to London.

You would also know that Gaza is on the Mediterranean and not that far from Cyprus.

In fact, if you travel 8 hours (middle) east bound from London, you would be completely past and outside the Middle East 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 probably somewhere over Pakistan or Afghanistan.

Some posters will have sick kids on a 15 week wait.

Are you really suggesting their feelings don't matter and they should just wait their turn quietly? To suggest anyone is 'off their tits' is an appalling comment regarding such a highly emotive and contentious issue.

No! I never said that.

I quoted the article. Which states the fact that children are treated by NHS, whilst many posters here keep on pushing it's privately funded.

I don't believe 300 of them will make any difference to our healthcare situation.

We'd be transferred to other countries closer by for logistical, cultural and family reasons

Most of the children are being. Did you miss the figure which has been quoted several times?

We and other parts of Europe will be taking a few hundred for reasons explained by pp.

Honestly. You really have to a special kind of bastard to object to this. Or another b word.

Disgusting attitude to have. 300 children is a barest minimal effort- it is literally a drop in the bucket. No British child is going to end up waiting longer because of this.

Yes, all of this.

We are a rich country (yes, we are), and privileged enough to have lived in relative peace for nearly a century. If we can’t help a few hundred children from somewhere suffering as badly as Palestine then we are utter arseholes.

Tbh this is a really helpful thread for me to read. I have been confused by how disinterested a lot of people seem in what's happening in Gaza right now (yes, and Sudan before anyone makes that dense point).

Good to know that there's a good chunk of you who think Palestinians are a bunch of spongers looking for a meal ticket to the UK.

15-year-old Majd al-Shagnobi, arrived in the UK last week. He required complex facial reconstructive surgery after an Israeli tank shell destroyed his jaw when he was trying to access aid in February 2024. He was the first Palestinian child to be flown to the UK for treatment for war injuries.

If you object to this, there really is a special place in hell for you.

I misunderstood then, I am glad to hear you welcome the governments plan to help these children.

I could equally throw the 'a you problem' right back at you. How about you fund and house all these children and their families. How about all the asylum seekers, too. We can't afford to do it anymore, if you want to house and feed and support people, that's on you.

I am struggling to find a suitable school for my child who has complex health and learning needs, among many other family and personal struggles that aren't helped with the extra strain of more and more people entering the country needing longterm, costly and complex help.