What you're missing.

UHands Off !

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               It’s Our NHS.

Sometimes, you have to stop and take stock of why people are doing things. Sometimes they have a hidden motive.

So, when newspapers like the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express all attack what has been going on in the NHS (and it has to be said the Mail and the Telegraph have been doing a really good job this year), you have to remember there is a motive behind it all.

So, earlier this year, the papers were headlining an estimate that 30,000 people a year are dying prematurely as a result of neglect, delay or poor treatment by the NHS.

Then, just before The Keogh report into the 14 underperforming NHS Trusts came out, a conservative election strategist briefed the press that some 13,000 people had died unnecessarily at those trusts.

These figures can’t be checked and are just speculative opinion. It’s vindictive and it messes with people’s morale. That’s what it’s meant to do.

I have some strong opinions of my own.

All of these papers support the ‘free’ market in health care and usually support the Conservative party too. The Mail, the Telegraph and the Express are also part of their respective owner’s vast financial empires. As we have seen with Richard Branson’s Virgin, you would be surprised who would like to get into the provision of healthcare services in order to make a fast buck.

If you want to make money, the NHS is an attractive victim; ring-fenced, massive public expenditure at a time when everybody is broke.

Because this is no ‘free’ market, the ‘customers’ have no choice – if you win a tender to supply services, the patients have to go to you, the Doctors have to refer you.

It’s not big bucks, its mega bucks - £109 Billion a year. That’s a lot of Government cash on the nail, no questions asked. It’s called cash-flow and its every businessperson’s dream to get his/her hands on some.

The purpose of this Blog is not to destroy the NHS but to save it as a public service, based on need and not ability to pay.

That’s a public service not a private profit.

What’s broken is fixable.

That also means having respect for the people who work for the NHS, providing a crucial, life-saving service.

On my other, seriously boring Blog;

 

                    helpmesortoutthenhs.blogspot.com

 

You could recently have read an analysis of The Keogh Report or an exposé of the secret briefings and conflicts of interest of the conservative’s election strategist and much, much more.

UHands Off !

                  It’s our NHS.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)