NHS reforms- anyone else as disbelieving as I am?

[nowwearefour]

What on earth is going on here? Privatisation by stealth? I know what- let's take the focus off the patients and the healthcare and put it on re-organising ourselves.AGAIN. how brilliant. anyone care to help me see what the benefits are of this?

And Wales. (sorry)

I too work in the NHS and I'm strongly opposed to the cuts across all the public services, to the creeping privatisation and to these inappropriate changes.

I want to say that none of this is a "fait accompli" The bill has just been put before parliament and can be voted out or amended to something more in keeping with the spirit of the NHS.

Despite this the DOH is already spending precious resources on what they call "piloting" the proposed new organisation, but on such a large scale that it can't really be called a pilot study- more like phasing in the changes before parliament can vote on them.

They are also claiming that because GP's are prepared to work within these pilot projects it implies that there is widespread GP support for the white paper. A significant proportion of doctors is against the proposed changes and have pressured the British Medical Association [BMA] to hold a special national meeting in the near future so that the membership can direct the BMA response to the government, which many doctors see as having been too compliant thus far.

I didn't intend to blather on too much but mainly wanted to say that I would like to see people contact their MP's on this issue and make their views felt- a very useful website for information and news about local campaigns is here www.keepournhspublic.com/index.php-not affiliated to any political party or trade union.

I work in the NHS and a colleague and i were on our break discussing this the other day , we agreed that whilst the last lot were dishonest ,greedy,warmongering sleazeballs this lot REALLY scare the bejeesus out of us

I would also like every single last memeber of the current goverment to swear that they and any members of their family have no vested interest in any private company that may profit in any way shape or form from what they are about to do .

I am ashamed to say that I voted for DC and his ilk, but do you know why? Precisely because they said they would NOT mess with the NHS. I feel not only ashamed, but completely betrayed and disgusted. I hope karma really kicks them in the behind.

Has everyone signed the e-petitions going around?

There's a demonstration in London tomorrow.

Details here. Demonstration Flyer

I'm going to find a way to go - I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't do everything I could to make myself heard and this stealth privatisation was snuck through.

probably come to Scotland eventually as the cuts are only posponed for 1 year(till after next elections).I can envisage everyone will need some sort of health insurance which the companies will cherry pick from I.E.DC will be covered for tonsil,appendix ETC but god help you if something serious like cancer strikes.The comment that profit will go to investment is also rubbish,this does not happen in Britian as seen by the privatised utilities.

My dh is a public health consultant whose contract finishes this year at a pct. Due to the cuts and dismantling of pcts, public health posts are extremely thin on the ground at the moment, so he may have nothing to go to.

He's slogged his guts out for years in medicine, all for what?

Hector - can your dh apply for jobs with local authorities? That's where public health is going. Fingers crossed he can find something - although with council spending cuts it may not be terribly promising.

Edam - yes he could, but nothing seems to be happening at the moment. PH is like a graveyard. Dh suspects there will only be a skeleton staff employed at the LAs, and competition for jobs will be stiff.

Fortunately, he is also a gp, but hasn't practised for two years. Partnerships are virtually out of the question because they seem to take on the younger, newly qualified docs. Salaried or locum posts are the other options.

I know all is not lost, but he's so cheesed off at the moment. He just wants to be allowed to do the job he was expensively trained to do.

I just don't understand why the press don't seem to be up in arms about this? The fcking (scuse my language) trees* got more publicity than this.

I'm not directly involved, but I keep seeing articles from high level medical spokemen saying how they are against the changes, and how it will create a tiered and unfair health service. I've read that the majority of doctors don't agree with self-budgeting (surely they'll farm that out to private companies and get on wtih their day jobs?) I've read articles about NICE losing its sway, and how drug distribution will depend on your postcode and the powers of persuasion of drug salesmen.

How can a government of our elected representatives apparently ignore the views of experts and practitioners, blithely believing that their way is best? It beggars belief.

another (phew!) in disbelief.
part of the plan is privatising the blood service - selling our blood, yup, you got it...

38 degrees 'activism' site (38degrees.org.uk/campaigns)has been organising get-togethers about the NHS, and the unions UNISON and UNITE are urging poeple to write to their MPs, as well as sign a petition against privatising the blood donation service (action.unitetheunion.com/page/s/BloodMoney?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Unite&utm_campaign=20110308BloodMoneyFwd&source=20110308BloodMoneyFwd ), but unless we do soemthing more coherent and louder i am not sure what is going to happen....a Mumsnet march through london? rallied in all our nearest cities? bumpers stickers for our cars saying NHS baby on board? anyone???

so you think what's happening with the faulty breast implants could happen for other medical treatments like cancer care? When do you think the changes will start to manifest for individuals? I have so many questions - If the predictions come true how will i know which company to go to? What do i do if i don't have enough money and my daughter becomes ill? Will insurance exclude some treatments? how will i judge who/which service provider will be able to perform? It's not difficult to criticise the NHS but my god surely it's worth improving - the alternative is too frightening to consider, and a major waste?

We who are worried don't think it will happen, we know for a fact that the Health and Social care Bill as it currently stands WILL let this happen.

There are a whole load of campaigns out there. They are all asking for the Bill to be stopped.

Write to your own MP and ask him for his assurance that healthcare will remain free for everyone who needs it. I'll bet you get a carefully worded reply.

This is not about improving the NHS, in about 30 days- maybe less the House of Lords will finish looking at the Bill and if nothing is done radically it will pass into Law.

As early as March 2012 the NHS WILL CHANGE FOREVER

We are now witnessing the last and most condescending phase of a plan to keep the media and the public distracted by one fake NHS initiative after another until the Health and Social Care Bill legislation is passed. That will mean the end of the NHS in all but a sham name.
It is all designed to soften up public opinion, along the lines "the NHS has all these terrible problems but it's safe in our hands because we really care, and we know how to put it right". I have lost count of the initially baffling stories in the media over the past few months about a new set of NHS failings and how a new policy is going to fix all that by the end of next week: choose the GP near the office, every contact counts, check the blood pressure, tell them to stop smoking, keep the wards clean, be nice to the patients ... . We are not told how the feeding frenzy of private health providers, still below the media radar, will help fix the latest problem, because that would frighten the public, but that is assuredly what the government have in mind.
The government is already selling the NHS, quietly, bit by bit, to the private sector ? to those same insurance companies who have already made such a mess of social care (remember the Southern Cross nursing homes?). It is grimly instructive to see just how hard and dirty the US health insurance industry fought - and how much money they spent - to prevent Obama's health care legislation being passed.
When the British public finally understands what this government has done to the NHS after this Bill is passed, it will be too late to turn back. We will be stuck with a US health insurance market - with all its failings, such as one in six of the population uninsured or under-insured.
What depresses me the most is just how many of our representatives in Parliament have double standards. Their register of interests show those who have consultancies with these same health insurance companies and private healthcare firms waiting to take over profitable bits of the NHS.
At the moment we are still on the list of our GP, still getting free healthcare. But what happens when the GPs can choose their patients? When we are given personal healthcare budgets? What if the cost of our child?s medication exceeds their budget? Who pays? Who cares? We should all be caring now ? it is critical that we understand what the government is planning for the NHS, rather than believing their drip-feed of media stories that it is broken beyond repair. THIS IS THE POINT OF NO RETURN. It is a frightening experiment, that will cost real lives.

So ? what do WE do?

1. Please write to your MP - you can do this in two minutes through the website: www.theyworkforyou.com ? it will find your MP for you via your postcode and even open an email text box for you. Tell them your worries, that the Bill has no democratic mandate (in fact Cameron promised before the election not to meddle with the NHS), that it will allow profit to be made out of sickness, and on the back of a service that we pay through for our taxes.
2. Talk to your friends. Have they heard what is about to happen to the NHS? No? Then Cameron?s media strategy is working, and we need to expose it.
3. Sign up to any e-petitions you can ? perhaps Mumsnet could start one. Our children?s health is surely too important to not fight for.

Cat1502- why have you resurrected this thread from march 2011?

What nobody has realised, and something the "Lords" involved with BUPA are well aware, as are many other MP's is that the Summary Care Records during the set up and after, has been breeched.

The reason this system was not put in place in the "60's"! is because it was recognised no computer is un-hackable. The fear was if insurance companies got access to people's health records the people would not be able to get medical cover.

How do I know this? This was my father in law's baby. Who owns the patent and copyright now? Monsanto. My father in law set up Medidata, the parent company was GD Searle. BUPA bought the system. Computerised medical records were put on ice, 1975 Donald Rumsfeld became CEO of GD Searle he sold GD Searle to Monsanto in the 80's.

One of the only places this system would have worked was the NHS because no need for Medical Insurance.

£14 Billion spent on Summary Care Records, where hospital receptionists, and even PORTERS had access such has been the disregard of data protection. In Hackney discs of health records went missing...

This means as the government carries on "Privatising" by "manufacturing consent", you will find you will not be able to get insurance to cover existing problems OR what the insurance companies think might happen to you.

Ask anybody with medical insurance with BUPA

We've already suffered results of privatising in the NHS. MRSA!

The elderly suffer greatly from Privatised Home Care.

All privatising does is cater for the 1%, the corporations will exploit the considerable assets of the NHS to cater for the 'Private Patients'.

They will cut costs by lowering wages for the workers, to pay their shareholders and satisfy the 'bosses' wages & bonuses and spend money on corrupting government which successive governments have succumbed by sponsoring parties via their British Subsidiaries and lobbying for the next contract.

The tax payers pick up the pieces when it's banks.

Who will pick up the cost of the uninsurable?

Is it going to be like the uncivilised USA where people die because they cannot afford their medicine? Or pay to sit in an emergency room? Or pay for an ambulance? Lose their homes to Medical Fees? Lose a foot because it's cheaper to cut it off than save it?

THINK BRITAIN WHAT YOU ARE LETTING YOURSELF IN FOR. And think how the NHS could have benefited from £14 billion spent on Summary Care Records.

ASK How much the government or whoever owns Summary Care Records get for using our medical records for research??? Our tax money bought this! If they are privatising the NHS who will profit?

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