Election 2015: Battleground NHS!

Apparently the Tories have sorted out the economy and we are now living in a land of milk and honey (on minimum wages and zero hour contracts? it must be magic). Unfortunately we are now being subjected to, not only the triumphal braying of the inbred, but the never ending scaremongering of how a Labour government, if elected, will spend all our taxes on gold plated mopeds and kittens for the poor. Which is strange really because last time they were in power they spent most of our money on schools, hospitals and Surestart centres. But the Tories have never let the facts get in the way of a lie.

The real battleground on which the next election should be fought will be the future of the NHS (National Health Service). It is a war that is partisan and ideological and if lost by the left will lead to generations of future children trying to survive in a society with a USA style, marketised health care system where health outcomes for the poor will worsen decade after decade after decade, leading to life expectancy levels within a large section of society reverting to pre WWII levels. Well, that’s what the Tories hope will happen.

The main reason the Tories want to wage an ideological war on the NHS is very simple. They hate paying for the health care of the poor. They also see privatisation as a way to make a quick buck for themselves and their friends and family. Hence the salient fact that many Tory MP’s work for private health care firms. Where they get the time, I do not know. I thought being an MP was a full time, pressurised job, which is why they want an 11% pay increase. This involvement with private healthcare will, and does, lead to impartial decisions being made which detrimentally affect the patient.

The United States health care system is a perfect example of how a profit driven system is tailored to the wealthy, how a large percentage of the population are denied access to health care, leading to suffering and early death, how private health care leads to the cutting of corners for the purpose of increased profits and how big business colonises a sector for the benefit of the few and disadvantages the many.

Examples of malpractice in the US are frightening. There was the hospital, that in order to avoid treating a woman with psychiatric problems, put her in an ambulance, drove her across town, and dumped her outside another hospital, before speeding off. Or the man who is selling his restaurant to pay health costs for one of his waitresses because she has a tumour but does not have health cover to get it treated, so would be’ allowed’ to die a slow painful death in the richest nation on the planet. Add to those examples the many instances of people being denied treatment because of pre-existing conditions and you have a dysfunctional pernicious system tailored for the benefit of the few. The USA pays almost 15% of its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) on healthcare, yet its healthcare outcomes are some of the worst within the western world. The UK spends about 8% of its GDP, but do you know of any teenage girls in the UK, left to die of a brain tumour, or patients being dumped outside hospitals because Health Trusts do not want to treat them.

A UK/USA trade pact will lead to American medical firms and health insurance companies flooding over here and colonising the health care market. Their main objective will be to make money off the backs of the sick and infirmed, not provide the best healthcare in the world, which is what the NHS currently does provide. A highly paid health Insurance executive from the US doesn't care about dirt poor children from Arkansas dying of leukaemia, do you think they’ll be that bothered about health outcomes amongst the poor in Lambeth or Liverpool. Their one and only concern is the bottom line.

In 2013, 75% of all NHS contracts have been taken up by private companies. The long term effect of privatisation will be services considered profitable will be cherry picked while Cinderella services, like varicose vein treatment for the elderly, will be left to wither on the vine. Openness and transparency will diminish because companies will withdraw behind a veil of secrecy in order to protect current and future contracts and avoid scrutiny, while whistle blowers will be hunted down. Bad performing companies will hide statistics, and instances of deaths and malpractice will be concealed and, because of legal aid cuts, victims and family will not have access to justice which will lead to high profile examples of malpractice and abuse such as Mid Staffordshire Hospital and the recent care home abuses being concealed and perpetuated with impunity.

There have also been failures in private health care provision, the PIP breast implant fiasco and the out of hours service in Cornwall that had to be taken back into public care and where the taxpayer was left to pick up the tab, to name two high profile examples.

Other drawbacks of a privatised system that a public system does not suffer from are the fragmentation and diminishing of services, the lack of connectivity and communication between services as well as a reduction of staffing levels to facilitate the profit motive. It is evident that when profit motives are involved staff levels are always streamlined which will lead to worse health outcomes and an increase in deaths. The current government claim they have employed more nurses but it is just more spin. They have had to employ more nurses and other medical professionals because so many are leaving the NHS due to the top down re- organisation.

Another concern is hospitals that are allowed to supplement their budgets by charging for private care which could lead to private work being prioritised over NHS treatment, which in turn will create longer waiting lists.

 The National Health Service is one of the greatest and most humane inventions the world has ever seen. Before voters exercise their mandate in 2015 they need to ask themselves a simple question. Do they want  to be the architects of a world where their children and grandchildren’s first concern before calling a doctor about their sick baby is where their credit card is or if they can afford to pay for treatment, the worst scenario being a delay in consultation leading to that child dying of a deadly illness such as meningitis.

It has been proven that contracted out services or privatised industries have always lead to less value for the consumer and higher prices, along with large profits for the private companies, prime examples being water and utility companies and train service providers. This is always the case when the profit motive is involved.

It is the duty of all civilised nations to provide a health care service free at the point of access based on clinical needs not on the ability to pay. It is the duty of every voter to use their mandate to benefit society and to fulfill their part of the Social Contract, not for their own benefit but for the benefit of future generations.

Your grandchildren's future is in your hands. Do not let them down.

The Butchers of Japan.

Currently hundreds of dolphins are being butchered and slaughter in a cove in Taiji, Japan. They are herded into a cove, kept imprisoned for days, before being dragged up on to a beach where a metal pole is driven into their spine and they are left to suffocate and die in extreme distress and agony. The people that perpetrate, and those that condone, this brutal barbarity are sub human scum. It is the same type of inhuman treatment that was meted out by the Japs, upon POW,’s during World War II.

The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree, does it.

Coalition Hypocrisy No:2,657,672.

Chief Secretary of the Treasury, Danny Alexander, otherwise known as the ‘ginger rodent’or 'Beaker' has claimed, since the coalition was formed, almost £ 10000.00 in travel expenses for ferrying his children around. Alexander lives down in London for part of the week when parliament is in session, so presumably he is separated from his family. It is a job he chose to do but I can understand the need to stay connected to his family by ferrying them down to London to stay with him. However there are two questions that need answering.

Q1: Why does a man, who is paid almost £ 120000 + expenses per annum, charging the country to pay for ferrying his kids around because his job takes him away from home? It is his choice to be a Member of Parliament. Many people work away from home but do not have the luxury of forcing the country to foot the bill.

Q2: Presumably Alexander stays in a rented property while in London, which he charges the cost to the taxpayer. When his children come to stay do they sleep in their own bedrooms or on a Z-bed in the front room? I ask this question because, with the introduction of the Bedroom Tax, people in receipt of Housing Benefit who have bedrooms that are not occupied seven days a week must pay extra or if they cannot afford it they risk eviction. This affects fathers who are separated from their children and only see them when they visit at weekends. So why is Alexander charging the country for under occupied bedrooms when surely he should be paying for the extra bedrooms himself.

This type of example demonstrates the hypocrisy that festers at the core of an out of touch coalition government whose motto is ‘Do as I say, not as I do’.

The Minimum Wage.

There is a current discussion doing the rounds about whether the minimum wage should be increased. Those opposed to an increase defend their position by suggesting it will cost jobs. A preposterous defence if ever there was one. Firstly, let’s make it clear, any employer who pays the minimum wage is really saying to that employee ‘you know, if I could pay you less, I would’. They defend poverty wages by suggesting paying more will put the company and jobs in jeopardy. It’s just scaremongering and self serving bull crap. You only have to walk into the car park of any Head Office and look at the cars in the executive parking bays to discover the disparity in pay in most companies and where the money can be finance an increase in the minimum wage. The fact that employers do not even value their staff enough to pay them 5p or 10p above the minimum wage shows the contempt they have for the people who make it possible for the ‘execs’ to drive top of the range motor cars and to be able to slink of home at 4.30 pm.

In A Tory World.

Recently, on a radio discussion show, a right winger accused another panelist of being ‘a bleeding heart liberal’.

 Only a Tory could think that caring about the plight of others was some type of crime against humanity. Only a Tory could think, that by accusing someone of being a caring individual, they were actually insulting them.

Thank you for taking time out to read my frequently inane and often absurd ramblings.