How would we combat the rising cost of NHS treatment?

"Mismanagement and underfunding": spot on.
I disagree with the work life balance and wage element though. The majority of hospitals now work 2 shifts a day not 3. That means we only have to work on average 3 days a week (on the wards). We also have 6 months full sick pay, a generous pension and i get 8 and a half weeks holiday a year. Our nursing assistants generally earn around 23k + a year with increments with a newly qualified nurse around 28k. These nurses now jump up to the top of their banding within 4 years whereas it took me (in the olden days) 8 years.
So no i disagree that we aren't getting a decent all-round deal.
However our wards are dangerously under-staffed and this has been the case over the last 4 years or so. I would suggest that the under-staffing is deliberate too with our managers doing the goverment's dirty work for them to stay within budget. Our ward is budgeted for 5 staff on days, 3 on nights. We currently require 9 on days and 9 on nights!
We receive regular e-mails from our chief exec telling us how wonderful everything is. Indeed on at least 3 occasions he has thanked our managers for saving money with staffing by cutting down on bank and agency staff: thanks a lot.
So yes the tories have squeezed and squeezed but i also hold our 'management' equally culpable for not fighting our corner.

 

And were it for the proliferation of migrant labour those jobs would have to be better paid. Win win for the working man.

 

Again, there’s no evidence to support that assumption.

it doesn’t stop you repeating it as if it’s fact though.

 

Brilliant idea Einstein, then when you have less people paying into the NHS, who finds it then???
You're ideas really are half baked , as are your views on brexit.
You really ought to start to understand the damage that will be done to this country after it happens, and then when you're having to pay more for everything who are you going to blame it on next?
The jews , arabs, South Americans??
Anyone but the real culprits who are the brexiteers, farage and the yanks when they are allowed, by this blundering, lying, blonde haired buffon...

 

This will happen that will happen blah blah blah.

 

Foreign Aid is not aid at all it’s just a tool to leverage influence and business. We could get rid of it for me but economically would cost us money rather than save it.

 

Again, the fewer people available to carry out a task the more companies have to pay to recruit them. Not rocket is it ?

 

The remainers don't like admitting they don't know what will happen either. Let's just blame the leavers for everything and take the moral high ground.

 

pretty much any independent peered review study confirms the economic benefit of migration.

 

You say so, but economics is more complex than that, add in some political science too, and all of a sudden it’s not simple supply and demand.

to further your notion though; what are you telling businesses who can’t do their planned expansion because of labour shortages, what about their customers? how do you deal with the loss of GDP, further reducing the cash available to the NHS?

shrinking an economy is rarely seen as a positive thing even by us soft lefties.

 

It was a response to Wilmersdorf Winky's post on the thread about increase taxing meat to increase funding to NHS and also improve people health (presumably in response to the option posted to 'cull people' to reduce pressure on the NHS.
I haven't entirely lost the plot yet

 

The fewer people there are, the less demand there is and companies cut back, so less jobs to go around and in a buyers market wages fall.

When there was a fall in demand after the global financial crisis in 2008, did your wages rise, or did you have less work (and less money as a result)?

 

The sad thing is that, on both sides' the election has become more about personality over policy. Unfortunately the two go hand in hand.

I have no doubt that Corbyn is honourable (for a politician) and like much of the manifesto content they have put forward but I cannot support Labour as I believe their economic policies are fundamentally flawed and would cause immense damage to the economy long term. I do not belive however well intentioned they can actually deliver on their promises however they might wish to do so. Others may disgree fair enough.

And before anyone starts quoting the 170+ academics and economists lining up to support Labour I am afraid I am very cynical when it comes to economics being regarded as having any scientific basis. The opinions may be marginally better informed using data and statistics than some but thei accuracy of their conclusions are on the same level as 'expert' meterologists who in fact get predictions right more often. If economic were a true science then there would only ever be a right answer whereas we have many views and major divergence between Keynes and Friedman ( for just one example)

On the other hand I consider, however unpalatable the last few years have been for the majority, the Cons are more prudent with the economy but, whilst , (again IMO), austeritypolicies were the right course at the time given the huge deficit, they have not been even handed in how it has been reduced and the rich vs poor gap has widened. Unfortunately, I am sceptical in the extreme!! re Johnson's intent and those surrounding him, nor can be trusted to deliver on his promises .

Please do not resort to insults, these are my opinions not facts, and others will take a counter view and they are perfectly entitled to do so.

 

Your best contribution to the thread.

 

And I wouldn't disagree,given that we control migration into our country and not the eu

 

You hit the nail on the head!! Where globalisation goes wrong is in businesses where most of their customer base is domestic outsourcing abroad. Example was many UK businesses including banking/insurance companies offshoring call centres and opening in Bangalore, Mumbai etc. Yep they saved on labour costs in the short term but also lost aa proportion of their customer base who were suddenly unemployed.
Reduce the customer base, reduce turnover, increase unemployment reduce economic activity,growth & GDP Iplus ncrease UK welfare bill. Great move ... NOT!! Sounds a bit like the impact of austerity measures although that is a little different and a different discussion to be had

 

I’m not talking about shrinking an economy though am I, I’m talking about controlling immigration as a means of reducing the burden in our nhs and public services. If for example next didnt have the option of advertising for operatives in Poland Whilst excluding uk workers they’d have to pay better wages to attract uk workers rather than keeping wages low to be topped up by benefits. Higher wages, more income tax. Less people using the nhs, our schools, our welfare state. They’d then have to strike the balance that all businesses do between profit and cost. You therefore reduce the burden in the nhs and increase wages for the lowest paid. The labour alternative is to retain freedom if movement and therefore the burden, whilst forcing up the minimum wage which for me would just make firms reduce employment, therefore increasing the burden further.

 

Good that you agree that this was the situation all along.


As for the NHS what will actually happen is:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/american-drug-firms-lobbying-raise-21020424

Followed by a continuation of mass exodus of NHS staff from Europe. Followed by privatisation

 

The Tories say they are going to get 50k more nurses. As 19k already work for the NHS that's really 31k but hey ho.

We are also told there are 40k vacancies for NHS staff. How many of these are for nurses and are these 50k in addition to these vacancies or are they merely filling posts already available?

Many of these vacancies are also available due to foreign staff leaving and being put off working here due to Brexit so not sure stopping immigration is really going to help the NHS.

 

Or we could try summat radical like training our own ?