Nhs

Just read a post on here with some interesting views.
In my opinion and based on chats with people I know in healthcare/finance the following scenario is most likely:

In 2017 we have a NHS (weak though it is)
In 2027 there is no NHS

In the next ten years it will cease to exist. It will have expired and gone to meet it's maker. It will be bereft of life. I think I am correct (maybe I'm not) but it begs the question how does our society let this happen? For me, a society that is willing to accept the dismantling of such a visionary idea as the NHS is not a good place to be. It stinks. Where is the defence of the NHS? That stinks too. There is not enough political will, political compassion, political opposition to the Tories to stop this happening in my opinion. That stinks as well.

The NHS is dying and nobody gives a proverbial. It's heartbreaking.

 

I fully understand why you've said that , but many people give a proverbial, millions do...I believe the overwhelming bulk of the people do . I don't think it will cease to exist within 10 years , but people do need to fight to ensure it exists forever ....the sooner we can get it overseen on an all party basis the better .

 

The Tories will happen to the NHS. Every conservative government since its inception, which they fought, has tried to destroy it but let's carry on sleepwalking towards privatised medicine for the rich.

 

The only way to stop its destruction is to fight it at every election, but with the current political class having an absolute disengagement with the truth, how can we actually trust what any of them says?

At the moment, it seems like we are better voting for someone saying they are going to destroy the NHS knowing that they are lying than we are voting for someone who promises to save it, also knowing that they are lying.

 

Did you forget the pfi under labour then?

All governments in my life time have seen then NHS as a play thing to win votes and/or make themselves rich off the back of it.

The NHSs biggest problem isnt the successive governments. Its destroying its self from the inside.

 

It needs a big sort out on the purchasing side. A relative of mine is having a refurbishment carried out at the practice, and NHS have appointed the builder and an extremely large organisation to manage the project. The tender accepted was for £350k, it has now through inefficiency crept up to £850k. The builde's subcontractors viz. the carpetfitters and painters have been programmed so that the carpets were layer before the rooms were painted. The managing agents have produced no plan of work, visit the site irregularly, and seem to have failed in their task on carrying out any quality control. If this is the type of thing that his replicated all over the country, it is of little surprise that the NHS is in trouble. If you couple all these unprogrammed costs with Labour's PFI, costs, it is evident that something drastic needs to be done.

 

. That's not true at all

 

That's one if the major. Issues

 

The nhs is there to get politicians rich. The massive influx of immigrants into the country has impacted massively on its ability to cope but that's the elephant in the room as its normally blamed on an ageing population. I say this as someone with both parents with over a hundred years experience in the nhs, a wife with over 20 years and a sister with over 25 years of frontline nhs experience. That doesn't make my opinion more valid, but it does theirs

 

Of course imegration has had impact on the NHS, gave the specialist are imegrants

 

I would introduce an additional NHS tax, ring fenced purely for this purpose. People don't like being taxed obviously but we have to pay for the NHS in some way and make it fit for purpose.

We currently have about 24.7 million basic rate tax payers and 4.4 million higher rate tax payers in the UK so my proposal would be a yearly tax of £25 for basic rate payers and £50 for higher rate payers. Anyone currently not earning enough to pay the basic rate and pensioners would be exempt so it's not targeting the poor or most needy in society.

Something must be done though. We currently have about an 800 million yearly deficit in what would be a good provision, this NHS ring fenced tax would bring in approx 838 million per year additional funding. We would need additional transparency on how this money is spent / invested in the NHS to ensure that we get good value for money and it doesn't get squandered.

It's as near to protecting the NHS as we could expect, we can't go on thinking that paying the same will save our NHS though, simply doesn't add up.

Without some form of additional taxation we will slowly see the NHS broken up with more and more services attracting a cost at the point of use.

Even with this said, large sections of our population will still expect something for nowt and start marching through our town centres complaining about tax rises instead of doing their bit.

 

So you dispute that at the formation of the NHS it was opposed by the Conservative Party. I would suggest you revisit history as well as English lessons.

 

You do talk some absolute rubbish.

 

I dispute whole heartedly that the Conservativeoarty are solely responsible for the current situation

 

If the NHS annual shortfall is £800M, and Vodafone got out of paying a £6B tax bill, then just perhaps there is something we could have done there. Applying the correct tax to global companies (Vodafone, Starbucks, McDs, etc) and making them pay it would probably cover the shortfall and allow us to address the social care issues at the same time, without affecting the man in the street. But in principle, we all want something for nothing when it comes to the NHS.

 

Or stop giving 200m plus a year to India would be a start.

 

Chucking good money after bad.

 

Particularly seeing as the GDP of india will be higher than that of the UK within the next couple of years (if it isn't already)

 

The cut backs, in real term funding, have been catastrophic. Targets that were being hit have now been abandoned... of course strategic long-term thinking has been lacking since Thatcher started to dismantle the Nhs and this was not arrested by the Labour Party but at heart the Conservative Party has never embraced the Nhs.

 

That's political not economic aid designed to influence policy towards British exports. Whether you believe it to be effective is different but it's definitely not altruism. Make the tax avoiders pay their tax that would sort it. Anyway when we leave the EU the 350 million quid a week will appear won't it..