The first post of 2013 comes to you from the cardiac care unit of the QEQM Hospital in Margate. Three days ago I collapsed for the second time in two days; an ambulance was called and a paramedic arrived within 5 minutes, with a full ambulance arriving inside a further five minutes. The NHS at its amazing best. I am well looked after.
This is how the NHS should work; public services provided by the state quickly, efficiently and directly. Yet a couple of weeks previously I had an example of just how the NHS should not operate. I returned from Ghana with a persistent ear infection, resulting in pain, deafness and loss of balance. I went to see the GP who agreed to refer me to a consultant. A few days later, instead of an appointment, I received a letter outlining the NHS “choose and call” programme listing a number of hospitals and phone numbers, and giving me a code to use to book an appointment. This is all in the name of patient choice.
But I really do not want this choice. I want my local hospital – and every local hospital – to have an ENT consultant working to a high standard who can sort out an ear infection. Then I want an appointment to see them quickly. I am not buying a novel or a washing up liquid. The idea that every transaction involving provision of state services should be based on an expensively created and entirely artificial market mechanism is an ideological frippery. Behind that letter lies a mass of administration to record my choice and shuffle invoices and financial transfers between my GP’s practice and whichever hospital I pick. Those invoices and transfers are all entirely internal state administration yet add massively to – multiply – the cost of simply getting a man to look down my ear canal.
There is a parallel here to the private sector distortion by which the middlemen who transfer the money for transactions have contrived ways to complicate that function until they are the major beneficiaries of economic activity.
Thankfully in emergencies this craziness is not yet applied. But I do not rule out one day being stretchered into an ambulance, asked where I want to go and handed a telephone.
Very sory to hear of your illnesses. Best wishes and hope you are better soon. J
Craig, get well soon mate. Hope it is nothing serious.
Our self serving representatives are making themselves money from privatising the nhs:
http://socialinvestigations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/nhs-privatisation-compilation-of.html
This is not a party divide, labour politicians are raking it in:
http://www.cwunorthwest.org/docs/News2012/DespiteProtestationLabourMPsProfitFromNHSPrivatisation.html
How many politicians use the nhs is unclear but even red ken has gone private:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/04/19/ken-livingstone-private-healthcare_n_1436598.html
Bastards.
O/T
Helena Cobben’s justworldnews.org site (pro-Palestine) occasionally referenced here is being blocked by Google as an ‘attack site’.
Hope you get well soon Craig.
I’ve had to use “choose and book” recently and not had any problems with it. About five years ago I had to have a minor operation and was offered the choice of going to the local hospital (6 month waiting list) or a treatment centre a bit further away (two weeks). No prizes for guessing which one I went to.
Get well soon, Craig. As a former mental health nurse (30 years in nursing) I entirely agree with your and Dr Halpin’s diagnosis of the NHS. Quite apart from the waste of resources due to vast expansion of the admin/clerical side of the NHS, the mnotion of each hospital and even ward pretending to be business rivals and competing with each other as if they were coffee bars or chip shops, has attracted entirely the wrong sort of people into NHS management. Just as casino banking has attracted irresponsible “risk takers” instead of the “dull but dependable” types who used to run banks when they actually lent money to build factories and similar unsexy things.
I say “pretending” to be business rivals, but of course the whole idea was to prepare NHS staff for actual competitoon in the private sector, to which whole swathes of the NHS are now being handed over without most of the public even noticing.
PFI is a rip off. Instead of the government borrowing at a competitive interest rate the work is farmed out to private companies who inflate the cost for profit.
For example, lanarkshire nhs will over 5 years pay £106m for hairmyres hospital which cost £68m to build. It would almost have been cheaper on a credit card.
http://www.newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-politics/254-nhs-scandal-as-p1-billion-down-pfi-drain
Reading other posters and links here it’s just too fucking depressing,really.
How did we let these minority Bullingdon bastards do all this?
And don’t get me started on Clegg,the supposed balance and alternative voice.The bastard,i’m certain,was in on the scam from the start.Controlled opposition.
Bastards all,absolute bastards.
Im away for a lie-down before i cry tears of rage.
Kempe 5 Jan, 2013 – 3:49 pm
“About five years ago I had to have a minor operation and was offered the choice of going to the local hospital (6 month waiting list) or a treatment centre a bit further away (two weeks). No prizes for guessing which one I went to.”
And no prizes for guessing how long you will wait in 5 years time if we allow the nhs to be destroyed.
Does it not occur to you that the difference of waiting times was contrived to sucker you in – do you really believe that ‘competition’ would result in a 1200% efficiency improvement?
You only need to look at us health care for an answer to that. But hey don’t let the bleeding obvious stand in the way of your work.
Well said Phil.
Absolutely spot on.
Some excellent comments above.
I see that facilities at the hospital where Craig is being looked after are under threat in spite of reassurances given by the chief executive, Stuart Bain. http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2012/may/11/qeqm_facebook_campaign.aspx
The Pembury hospital referred to is a fairly new PFI hospital whichg cost £225m. It has 512 single rooms all conveniently ready for takeover by the private sector as and when.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-13191920
Every maintenance job however large or small is carried out by the PFI contrators at fancy prices of their choice for the duration of the contract, ie 32 yrs. At £20m per year, the cost of the PFI contract to the taxpayer is £640m. Staggering isn’t it.
Mr *unt has been on the box several times (whilst I was doing the ironing) looking goggle eyed and talking up the coalition’s achievements which he thinks are not given enough credit. He even used the word ‘transformative’ to describe the changes made. Correct there Mr *unt.
Indeed Mary,indeed.
These types have no soul,no soul at all.
But,one day,they’ll pay for their hubris,greed and deceit.
Karma.
O/T – Julian Assange has been arrested: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/01/505232.html
My best wishes to you for a speedy recovery. Like you I have nothing but praise for the NHS having spent 5 weeks in their safe hands last year. There was a woman on BBC news yesterday criticising the NHS for the way her mother was badly treated. She made it sound like bad treatment was endemic throughout the country but she also showed her colours with a statement to the effect that at least something was being done under this government.
Off topic. Tonight, or rather early tomorrow morning, about 12.30 a.m Press TV is showing a documentary about the death of weapons’ inspector Dr David Kelly.
http://www.presstv.ir/doc/default.html
Tom Welsh: “Please listen carefully to what the doctors tell you, and follow their advice”
Except any like the doctor arranged by an American associate of Craig’s in Samarkand, who employed a mysterious manner to drive skewers through his chest and joints, and advised him to sleep with underage girls to top up his yang. Soon after that helpful appointment he almost died from clots and complications iirc. In the book Craig just recalls the episode with puzzlement without interpreting it, it took Clark to point out to me, the obvious link between the strange appointment and his emergency soon following it.
—
Craig made it through the worse – must have a slightly shabby Guardian angel.
Terrible news if true which I hope is not the case. Poor Julian. What bastards they are.
WikiLeaks Founder and Fugitive Julian Assange has been arrested
Conal Urquhart | 04.01.2013 18:00
Sources close to this reporter have confirmed that WikiLeaks founder and international fugitive Julian Assange has been arrested by Scotland Yard detectives at a private medical clinic located just a five minutes drive from the Ecuadorian embassy at Hans Crescent, London.
WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange
Sources close to this reporter have confirmed that WikiLeaks founder and international fugitive Julian Assange has been arrested by Scotland Yard detectives at a private medical clinic located just a five minutes drive from the Ecuadorian embassy at Hans Crescent, London.
It is believed that Assange had been feeling unwell since before christmas, and after consultation from the in-house doctor he was referred to the specialist clinic.
Just before entering the clinic Assange was arrested by undercover Scotland Yard officers who swiftly took him into there custody.
It is beleived that Assange was then transported to the nearby Chelsea and Westminister hospital – also in central London.
The incident only occured within the last 45 minutes and details are rapidly unfolding.
Even at this early stage it is understood that Assange was being transferred by diplomatic officials from the embassy – and the convey he was being transported in had diplomatic plates.
More information will be made available as it comes in.
Any opinions, publications, comments, information etc made herein does not necessarily represent the opinion of this journalist or The Guardian (UK) newspaper.
Conal Urquhart
:::
Thanks for telling us Michael Stephenson. Nothing from the state broadcasters.
Wonder if The Ecuadorean Embassy employed any new cooks recently?
Yeah…the voodoo doctor in Samarkand too…
Not too mention Chavez…
It makes me laugh,sort of,when some posters dont believe the microwave tech for voices in the head and feeling on fire are a conspiracy theory.
These bastards have got a lot more sinister tech than that,believe me.
“Terrible news if true”
That’s a very big if Mary.
The spelling in that article leaves a lot to be desired, doesn’t look like the work of a journalist to me.
O/T Correction: on a David Kelly website it says the programme ‘Aperture – the Death of Dr David Kelly – an open case’ is being broadcast at 7 p.m. tonight on Press TV. The link I’ve provided above seems to have a countdown time of some 5 hours 18 minutes before the programme starts whenever you access it.
Oh my God Mary. As you say if true it is almost unbelievable.
We must step up our campaign. This is disturbing. No faith in the authorities.
“Just before entering the clinic Assange was arrested by undercover Scotland Yard officers who swiftly took him into there custody. ”
Even Guardian reporters aren’t that thick are they?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9675904/MPs-should-consider-banning-Frosties-says-Andy-Burnham.html
And in these challenging dark times all Andy Burnham can come up with is too ban Frosties.
Oh the vision of the man!
Conal Urquhart has denied being the author of the article saying Julian Assange has been arrested.
Appears to be a fake.
“Does it not occur to you that the difference of waiting times was contrived to sucker you in ”
No, not at all. How would that have worked and in what way was I “suckered in”? As I understand the way the system worked at the time whoever did the operation got paid for doing it so why would the local hospital contrive in fixing it’s waiting lists in such a way?
Actually the hospital was undergoing a bit of a crisis which eventually led to the Chief Exec getting booted out but nobody outside of the hospital knew that at the time. The condition (carpel tunnel) wasn’t life threatening but bloody painful and i don’t think I could’ve endured another six months without powerful painkillers which would’ve put me off work and which bring their own problems. The only other option would’ve been to go private (£1,500 to £2,000).
A hoax. Or is it?
http://www.cyberwarzone.com/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-arrested
https://twitter.com/AssangeC
Thanks Anon. These trolls get everywhere. I would trust Christine Assange before any of them.
“Is Techno a stooge from one of the ‘Privatise the NHS’ lobbyists?”
.
I work in medical IT for one of those evil private companies. We sell software to doctors who make a free choice whether to buy it or not so the NHS is currently paying my salary. However, even if the NHS were privatised doctors would still buy software so it makes no difference to me. Does that answer your question?
.
“Does it not occur to you that the difference of waiting times was contrived to sucker you in ”
.
Does it occur to you that maybe, just maybe, the people who run the NHS would like it to offer a better service? Lord knows it needs to (my Dad was killed by an infection caught in an NHS hospital).
Next three Press TV documentary slots according to their website are at 9:30pm, 00:30am and 01:30am. UK time. David Kelly Doc listed as “next” up after “Up In Smoke” which is listed as the 9:30pm doc. So David Kelly doc may be in the 00:30am or 01:30am slot (UK time).
Sending You the required life force to enable You to heal Yourself.
YOU are much needed, charge up and help ….We the people.
Kevin
@Vronsky, according to google and yandex justworldnews.org has an infection, a worm which involves propogation through facebook accounts.
I had a dig and believe this is the offending line in their webpage:
(iframe src=”http://wonderfullsneting.com/?a=YWZmaWQ9MDE3ODg=” width=”584″ height=”283″)(/iframe)
If they can cut it out their webpage should be clean. But it is possibly being injected by the worm on their server. The site can be browsed safely with Firefox addon “NoScript” which can block iframes -i think by default.