Matt Hancock, what is your opinion of his Cancer treatment speech? *edited by MNHQ at OP's request*

[GalaxyCookieCrumble]

Is anyone else as angry as me right now over what that absolute to&&er has just said regarding cancer patients ? I'm actually scared of what is unfolding. He is truly evil.

Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow Did you choose to misunderstand? I cannot catch someone’s cancer, they while vulnerable can catch Covid, anyone can catch Covid, that’s why Covid is the one that needs handled right now. Also, I know plenty of people with cancer that continued their treatments. It’s not a case of no treatment for every cancer patient everywhere.

Hospitals full of coronavirus (staff and patients) are not safe places for people with suppressed immune systems - like many cancer patients fi - to be.

If lots of NHS staff or their families are sick with cv then services are going to be affected.

It's a great pity that all those frothing about "the NHS prioritising COVID " cant wrap their heads round that.

Exactly.

@Porcupineinwaiting

Hospitals full of coronavirus (staff and patients) are not safe places for people with suppressed immune systems - like many cancer patients fi - to be.

If lots of NHS staff or their families are sick with cv then services are going to be affected.

It's a great pity that all those frothing about "the NHS prioritising COVID " cant wrap their heads round that.

My 'exactly ' was to you, not sure why the quote didn't appear?!

There isn’t a healthcare system anywhere in the world that could deal with high levels of circulating covid and carry on healthcare as normal

So true. Merkel has spoken several times on need to avoid German healthcare being overwhelmed (and unable to privide other services if that happened). Is she evil?

@Quietlyloud

Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow Did you choose to misunderstand? I cannot catch someone’s cancer, they while vulnerable can catch Covid, anyone can catch Covid, that’s why Covid is the one that needs handled right now. Also, I know plenty of people with cancer that continued their treatments. It’s not a case of no treatment for every cancer patient everywhere.

Another 'exactly'. There really are some 'hard of thinking' people around 🙇🏻‍♀️

"VinylDetective Of course we know he’s the recent Health Minister. How does that affect the austerity years?"

Matt Hancock became an MP in 2010. He was an MP throughout the Austerity years, presumably voted Conservative, too.

He did not simply materialise one day as Health Minister. He's as responsible as any of them for Austerity.

What about the staff treating the cancer patients? How do they treat people if they're off sick with covid? The more the virus spreads, the greater the staff shortages.

I do totally agree that part of this mess is the result of long term under investment in the NHS. The hospital I work at has continued to treat cancer patients without interruption, right through lockdown. They were able to do this because we had single room facilities for every patient so they could be kept isolated. It massively helps with infection control and in this day and age all hospitals should have these facilities. They don't because so many are still housed in crumbling, ancient buildings with patients crammed into multi-bedded bays where infections (not just covid) can spread incredibly easily.

@MoggyP

There isn’t a healthcare system anywhere in the world that could deal with high levels of circulating covid and carry on healthcare as normal

So true. Merkel has spoken several times on need to avoid German healthcare being overwhelmed (and unable to privide other services if that happened). Is she evil?

The UK starts from around half the numbers of beds and staff than the German healthcare system does.

Our NHS has become, as a SAGE member said yesterday, the Covid Health Service.

People didn't see field hospitals in car parks in the UK because the NHS stopped almost all other treatments, empty wards & the elderly died in the community & care homes, the Govt PR machine won out !

So now Hancock et al can all stand up and say "Our NHS wasn't overwhelmed..... like we saw in the rest of Europe"

It is a lie.

Reallybadidea I agree. Near us not long ago a new children’s hospital was built next to the main hospital and oh my god is it amazing. No open wards with multiple beds or cots, all single rooms with a pull out bed for any parents staying, a bathroom attached with shower etc and it’s so nice. Thankfully my kid hasn’t had to stay for a while but it’s so much better than when she was on a ward and anyone with anything would be hanging around coughing everywhere. I know money issues won’t make it possible right now but for sure the focus needs to be on updated the layout of the hospital to control things like infection.

If they had not closed hospitals, closed wards when most areas have increased in population, perhaps they would be able to prepared for a pandemic such as this.

Well we could pontificate about that all day and we'd probably be in some agreement on that but my question was, what is the alternative given the available resources?

@FourTeaFallOut

If they had not closed hospitals, closed wards when most areas have increased in population, perhaps they would be able to prepared for a pandemic such as this.

Well we could pontificate about that all day and we'd probably be in some agreement on that but my question was, what is the alternative given the available resources?

Well, they found 120 billion to build a railway? 200 billion to upgrade Trident and billions to fight wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.. oh & billions spent on Smart motorways which are anything but.

But limited resources for the nations health? and we all voted for all of this!!! madness!

Training should be on going and should have been addressed when medical staff shortages became apparent not when they reached 110k.

I didn't vote for this. And as someone with a chronic illness, from a societal and a personal perspective, I would very much like the NHS to be better funded.

I just don't think that Matt Handcock, who had been health secretary for less than a year before the pandemic hit, can be accused of being evil because he was plain that the NHS won't be able to carry the weight of need over winter if covid continues to spread.

As a severe asthmatic who has become accustomed to easy access to oxygen at hospital during an attack, it is not an academic concern that I will be competing for a bed and resources from the influx of covid patients.

But turning Handcock in to the bad guy, like a pantomime villain, doesn't change the situation at hand.

@ThroughThickAndThin01

VinylDetective Of course we know he’s the recent Health Minister. How does that affect the austerity years?

He’s been an MP since 2010. He voted for all those cuts.

I didnt vote for this

Me neither. But plenty did. And this is a democracy (of sorts) so this is what we get.

The NHS isn't underfunded, it's run by absolute dicks who have no idea how to run a huge business (as that's what it effectively is).

The issue with the bits that have been privatised is the contracts were drawn up by the employees who again had no fucking clue.

I went from investment banking to working fir the NHS and the waste, laziness and absolute apathy for change is staggering.

Of course cancer treatment is going to suffer if we don't get this under control.

There is definitely an element of wastage within the NHS (quite a big one too). But even allowing for that, our per capita spend on healthcare is pretty low compared to many western countries.

Problem is the nature of Covid means that it is particularly nasty if you're immuno suppressed (most common side effect of chemo) or even just after a GA.

To be "safe" you'd need daily testing of staff in "safe hospitals" as well as required isolation /pre admission testing, hoping that it doesn't have too many false negatives...

Plus staff illness, isolation etc.

Stuff will obviously get missed.

Underfunding for years means we have too few beds and that’s before Covid is taken into account. They were being reduced even between 1997 and 2010 when the NHS was actually being funded somewhere near enough. Still at least a lot of those old bed blockers are dead now, having been decanted untested into care homes.

www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/nhs-hospital-bed-numbers

Hi everyone not had chance to catch my breath to day or catch up on the news, so taking a well deserved much needed cuppa and will read through the comments. I asked HQ to edit the title, the fact my personal feelings caused more of a stir than the issue itself just tbh proved my point.

GalaxyCookieCrumble

It hasn’t proved any point.. you called someone evil for basically telling us the facts and trying to make people understand they need to take this seriously. Do you have a solution?

On a lighter note, galaxy cookie crumble sounds really nice. I must try and make some.

Our spend on healthcare is low compared to many western countries and that is a decision that this government, including Matt Hancock, voted for.

I didnt vote for this government and many of those who did voted for it despite its attitude to the NHS because they wanted Brexit. They were fools but since I am too old to emigrate I'm stuck with it.

Private healthcare is more inefficient than public health care - I've quoted studies on other threads that show that, cant be arsed to find them again. The ideology that claims private is always better is being shown up for what it is with track and trace - NOT NHS, entirely private - very expensive and incompetent.