Home » Posts tagged 'NHS'
Tag Archives: NHS
Tory cuts leave boy facing life in wheelchair
Ben has spastic diplegia cerebral palsy & he needed spinal surgery to cure his pain caused by the spasticity. One week prior to his operation, the government pulled thousands of pounds out of the NHS – which had a counter effect on Ben & his life changing surgery was canceled along with all of his treatment.
We are at a point in our campaign where we are fundraising for Ben’s rehabilitation following his spinal surgery.The NHS will not fund Ben’s medical care for 2 years & so I am reaching out for help to circulate Ben’s story in the hope of finding help & advice with fund raising.
Please click here to visit Ben’s campaign page.
This is Ben’s most recent BBC coverage
Published after a request by Ben’s Mum, Amy.
Tory cuts leave boy facing life in wheelchair
Do you honestly think Tories care about you?
You’ll only hear from them when they want money
Do Tories care?
Farage admits he wants NHS scrapped
Farage admits he wants NHS scrapped
Farage wants NHS scrapped he admits
Tory cuts ‘major cause’ of A&E problems
Tory cuts ‘major cause’ of A&E problems
Effect of Tory cuts
Older people in England are being left “high and dry” by councils cutting back on the care they provide, Age UK says.
Research by the charity showed the numbers getting help had fallen from just over one million three years ago to 850,000 last year.
Age UK said the cuts were one of the major causes behind the growing pressures on A&E units.
But councils said they had been left with little choice because they were “chronically underfunded”.
The overall cut in numbers getting help from councils represents a drop of one-fifth.
But the research – based on an analysis of official figures – also provided a detailed breakdown of which individual services had been cut.
It found between 2010-11 and 2013-14:
- The numbers getting help at home for tasks such as washing and dressing fell by a third to just over 370,000
- Day care places have dropped by two-thirds to just under 60,000
- The numbers getting meals on wheels fell to 29,500 – a decline of 64%
Age UK director Caroline Abrahams said: “Our state-funded social care system is in calamitous, quite rapid decline.
“The more preventive services like meals on wheels and day care are being especially hard hit, leaving the system increasingly the preserve of older people in the most acute need, storing up big problems for the future.
“Hundreds of thousands of older people who need social care are being left high and dry. The lucky ones have sufficient funds to buy in some support, or can rely on the goodwill of family, neighbours and friends. But there are many who are being left to struggle on entirely alone.”
Did Cameron keep any NHS pledges?
Before the 2010 general election Cameron said “We are the party of the NHS. We back it. We’re going to expand it. We’ve ringfenced it and said it’ll get more money under a Conservative government and it’s our number one mission to improve it. If you remember a few conference speeches ago I said you can sum up our priorities in three letters NHS.”
Fast forward to present day and we cannot see truth in any sentence.
“We are the party of the NHS” is meaningless drivel
“We back it” ambiguous (perhaps he’s confusing it with a horse in the races)
“We’re going to expand it” ambiguous (if he means stretch it to breaking point then maybe this one is true)
“It’ll get more money under a Conservative government” turned out to be a lie
“It’s our number one mission to improve it” Number one mission? Houston we have a problem!
What matters to you?
Our A&E departments are in crisis. It looks like we’re now feeling the impact of the NHS shake up that no-one voted for. [1] And the politicians who did it are blaming anyone but themselves. [2]
The A&E crisis is just one example of how MPs’ decisions affect the lives of all of us. We only get to vote for our MPs and our government once every five years. This year, in May, we get that chance.
So what should 38 Degrees members push for at this election? What do you want to change about the UK, or about UK politics? What’s important to you right now?
Politicians and their spin doctors think they set the election agenda. But 38 Degrees is independent and people powered – if enough of us work together, we can turn politics-as-usual on its head.
Together we could make sure the things we care about, like protecting our NHS or cracking down on tax dodgers, are front and centre in the race for votes.
During the last election in 2010, 38 Degrees members voted together to decide the plan. [3] The key priority then was exposing candidates with links to the corporate lobbying industry.
With hope and determination,
David, Nat, Blanche and the 38 Degrees team
PS: The decision about what 38 Degrees does during the election is a big one. As well as this survey there’ll be chances for 38 Degrees members to meet up and discuss these plans. You’ll get more details about those events in the next few days – so please vote.
PPS: After the attacks in Paris recently, we weren’t sure if today was the right day to send this message. In the end we decided that it would be the wrong response to delay a conversation about democracy. We hope you feel the same.
NOTES
[1] Mirror: Our NHS is dying as hospitals go into meltdown with worst waiting times in a decade:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-dying-hospitals-go-meltdown-4930938
Guardian: Cameron defends NHS as A&E units record worst-ever performance:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/06/cameron-defends-nhs-ae-worst-performance-record-hospitals
Huffington Post: What Is Really Causing the A&E Crisis?
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-louise-irvine/nhs-accident-emergency_b_6324026.html
[2] The government isn’t talking about the real reasons for the crisis – it’s blaming people for going to A&E when they don’t need to, and pointing the finger at our ageing population. But this isn’t the whole story. Cuts to social care mean older and disabled people can’t leave hospital because they can’t get care at home. And replacing NHS Direct with a privatised 111 service run by unqualified staff has landed many in A&E who don’t need to be there. Guardian: ‘Bedblockers’: the fit-to-leave patients deepening hospital crisis:http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/07/-sp-bedblockers-worsening-nhs-hospitals-crisis
BBC News: Six reasons A&Es are stuggling:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30711442
[3] 38 Degrees: What could 38 Degrees do in the general election:
http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/01/07/what-could-38-degrees-do-in-the-general-election/
38 Degrees: The election (survey) results:
http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/01/12/the-election-survey-results/
Tory Greed Costs Taypayers £7 MILLION
A CONTRACT to diagnose illnesses in thousands of patients has been handed to a private firm even though the NHS offered to do the work for seven million pounds cheaper.
The scans for cancer and other conditions are performed on a state-of-the-art machine at the Royal Stoke University Hospital partly paid for by public donations.
But it is to be operated by staff from Alliance Medical which has been given the scanning service in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Shropshire and Lancashire by the Government.
A competing NHS bid led by Royal Stoke’s trust was turned down by NHS England which had put the work out to tender.
Staff from Alliance had been working alongside professionals at the hospital since the PET/CT scanner was installed last November.
They are now set to remain following the award of the 10-year contract worth an estimated £80 million.
Health campaigners said the move was motivated by political dogma to get the private sector more involved in public services.
It comes as a bitter row continues over the decision to put £1.2 billion of cancer and end-of-of-life care on the market.
Most of the cash for the £3 million machine came from a bequest plus a £1 million Keele University research grant – but £250,000 was donated by the public.
Ron Alcock, aged 75, from Cheadle gave £1,000 after the death of wife Jeannette of leukaemia in 2009.
He said: “Because of Mr Cameron’s policies private firms are coming more into the NHS.
“That scares people that it will be privatised and could deter them from raising money for things in future.”
The Royal Stoke had pooled its expertise with Wirral-based Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and the Royal Liverpool to put in the NHS bid for PET-CT scanning across a region of around five million people.
The Sentinel can reveal that despite being £7million cheaper over 10 years, it finished runner-up to the Alliance submission.
Based in the Royal Stoke’s imaging department, the PET scanner is technically owned by Keele University.
Ian Syme, co-ordinator of pressure group North Staffordshire, said: “I know NHS clinicians are uneasy particularly if it means they will no longer be getting the same access to the scanner.
“This whole process has been shrouded in secrecy. We don’t even know who expert adviser or public representative were on the panel.
“NHS England must demonstrate what extra quality people will get from Alliance given that it turned down a bid millions of pounds cheaper.”
A trust spokesman said: “The procurement process is still active and until completed we are unable to provide any information.”
And an Alliance spokesman added: “Until any standstill period is over we will be unable to provide any further information.”
Tory Greed Costs Taypayers £7 MILLION
Tory Greed Costs Taypayers £7 MILLION
Tory NHS privatisation plan is sneaky
Tory NHS privatisation plan is sneaky
Tory NHS privatisation plan is sneaky
Mr Cameron Keep Your Mitts Off My NHS
Mr Cameron Keep Your Mitts Off My NHS
Mr Cameron Keep Your Mitts Off My NHS
A 91-year-old Second World War veteran has upstaged Ed Miliband at the Labour Party conference with a passionate and tear-jerking speech on the health service.
Harry Smith moved audience members to tears as he made a passionate case for the NHS and warned David Cameron: “Keep your mitts off my NHS.”
Mr Smith received a number of standing ovations as he detailed his life in a “barbarous, bleak and uncivilised” Barnsley slum where he listened to the screams of a woman dying of cancer because she could not afford the medicine to dull the pain.
His eight-minute speech came after a poorly received 66-minute keynote by the Labour leader on Tuesday, which was roundly condemned after it emerged he forgot to mention the deficit.
Political pundits were hailing Mr Smith’s speech as a lesson to Mr Miliband in delivery, saying he had managed to make a powerful case for the NHS in a way the leader had failed to.
Labour politicians, including the shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, wept openly as he described how his sister had to be buried in a paupers’ pit after dying of tuberculosis at the age of 10.
He said the family watched as she faded away, unable to help because they “just didn’t have the dosh to keep her comfortable”.
Mr Smith said that eventually she was sent to die in a workhouse infirmary because her mother could no longer care for her.
Mr Smith told the conference: “In my heart, I can still feel my mum and dad’s desperation as they were trying to keep our family safe and healthy in the slum we called home.
“Common disease controlled our neighbourhood and snuffed out life like a cold breath on a warm candlelit flame.”
He said he was born in 1923 to a life that was nothing like an episode of Downton Abbey, where hospitals and doctors were for the privileged few.
But he said while his heart was with the children of his generation who did not make it, it was also with the people of the present who were struggling because of welfare cuts and austerity measures.
He finished: “Today we must be vigilant. We must never ever let the NHS free from our grasp because if we do, your future will be my past.
“My life is your history and we should keep it that way.
“So say it loud and say in clear in this hall and across this country, Mr Cameron, keep your mitts my NHS.”
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/news/war_veteran_upstages_miliband_with_nhs_speech
The cost of childbirth without an NHS
The Tories are privatising the NHS piece by piece under your nose. Before long you will be charged for a doctor consultation. If you live in America you’re already charged for things like childbirth. Under the Tories you will be expected to pay for these things yourself.
Converted into Great British Pound (approx):
Obstetric (Ob) Room charge: £4,245.56
Room & Bed – Ob: £6,368.33
Nursery – Newborn 1: £4,475.00
Post Icu: £2,724.98
Pharmacy: £1,396.57
Medical/Surgical Supplies: £516.70
Sterile Supply: £105.19
Laboratory: £830.63
Lab/Chemistry: £1,803.53
Lab/Hematology: £830.41
Ct Scan/Head: £1,292.37
Blood Storage & Processing: £200.53
Clinic: £200.53
Detailed Pharmacy: £462.32
Labor: £284.19
Ekg/Ecg: £223.29
Observation: £88.58
Total due: £26,048.69 (converted from original bill)
The cost of childbirth without an NHS. A reality under the Tories
Actor Stephen McGann posted the invoice onto Twitter earlier.
Stop UK lies & corruption 