Thursday 8 May 2014

THE NHS AFTER A NO VOTE

This is important. 


It's a video of a doctor talking about the NHS in Scotland... and the NHS in England and independence.



Listen carefully to this video. This woman knows what she talking about. She's a breast surgeon. And the picture she paints of the future of the health service in the case of a no, is beyond scary.

If you intend staying here, for heaven's sake vote yes, or hope that you never get sick and you never get old.


Thanks to Cynical Highlander for drawing it to our attention.

39 comments:

  1. Fantastic - understated and extremely powerful. This needs to be distributed far and wide

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    1. Yes, I agree, but it is up to us on the net to do that.

      Because it doesn't suit the agenda of the newspapers or the pro-union BBC.

      But this has nothing to do with nationalism... it is plain and simple happening and going to go on happening and he who holds the purse strings... calls the tune.

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  2. I just posted this on my facebook page,

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    1. Thanks John. I think everyone who has a social media page of any sort should post the video there.

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  3. Fantastic - we need the same in Wales. We suffer from the too small, too poor, too stupid mentality of the unionists and without independence we will for ever been on the periphery of a UK with no ambition for Wales

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    1. Absolutely Cibwr.

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't get the impression that there is the same energy for change in Wales as here.

      And yet you need it every bit as badly.

      The truth is that, everywhere apart from London and the South East is the same. The whole UK is run for that area, where the money is.

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  4. Why aren't the MSM trumpeting this far and wide - Where's Eleanor bloody Bradford when there's a REAL story to be told? This is nothing short of scandalous!
    Angry now....

    Eck

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    1. Because it doesn't suit their agenda. Simple, Eck.

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  5. What a brilliant speech and speaker. It's fantastic to hear someone who knows what s/he's talking about making such a powerful case, and making it so clearly. Thanks a million for that.

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    1. Yes, I agree.

      It's good to hear real Scottish businessmen talk about Scottish business (as opposed to people who have the bulk of their money/business in England).

      So it is good to hear someone who is at the sharp end of the NHS talk about health. She knows how it works first hand.

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  6. Sadly, this is no secret for anyone currently working in the NHS. I am aware from colleagues in England just how difficult it has become to provide an appropriate level of service. The contradictions between providing the required service at a national level, and individual trusts worrying about nothing other than balancing their books (with no thought of being part of a strategic service) cannot be resolved. This talk is spot on, and anyone unaware of the risks of a NO vote needs to watch, listen, and think very carefully.

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    1. More and more you hear of horror stories of privatisation in health in England under this Hunt man.

      Running it as a business is throwing up some horrific tales.

      The NHSS is something we all need. We never know when we are going to need it very much and when it will be a life and death matter.

      I suspect most of us would like our treatment to be the best that can be afforded, decided by the fact that we are a relatively affluent country.

      Not by the level of profit that one of Cameron's mate's company will make if they don't bother with a few of the more modern techniques (unless you go private).



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  7. Having just listened to the three muppets questioning the First Minister on their required single question on waiting times in Accident and Emergency this lunch time and having listened to Dr Whitford. My I suggest that she is put forward to one of the many committees that are called in the Scottish Parliament, it is the only way she will be heard. As someone who has worked in the Scottish NHS but who retired before the effects of the change of Government and policy could be felt. I have always felt that this is one thing which YES needs to make people who are swithering aware of.

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    1. They should try accident and emergency in England, Helena. And they can say that the HNSS will always be separate and will always be different, but, as they spend less and less on the NHSE, we will get less and less to spend here.

      I wish she could get the opportunity to speak to to a committee. I wonder if there are any people in NHSS who would like to adopt the English system.

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    2. One thing which should be noted is the number of MP's who have interests, shall we say, in Private Medicine. I was referred to Members Interests a while ago and I should have been ASTONISHED at those who have. Alistair Darling for instance.
      The other thing is that there is always the venal in Doctoring, there were those who opposed the NHS in 1947 and were given the sweetener to retain Private Practice, they have been succeeded by others, that I am sure.

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    3. Helena

      Your wish is my command

      Read and be very, very angry.

      http://socialinvestigations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/nhs-privatisation-compilation-of.html

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    4. Wow.... Just WOW.

      That is a damning indictment on them...

      Hell mend the bastards.

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    5. I've added that excellent blog to the sidebar... Thanks Panda...

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    6. Yes Thanks Panda and Tris, I have seen some of it, and I am already angry. I wonder if this got out in a general fashion just how angry those who are swithering would be. Those who think the light shines out of Labour/BT, National Treasure, Alistair Darling

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  8. Cor wept buckets after reading this blog boo ! hoo !and after a good think decided this is the right and best answer to snp faux outrage.

    here

    and i mean every word

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    1. Little boys with nothing to say should try silence.

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    2. Dunno what you're on about Niko. You won;t have the put up with this. You should be looking at the Cypriot Health Service.

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  9. There is, as there always must be, a referendum angle to this too. The SNP want Scots to believe the only way to “save” the NHS is to vote for independence. This makes no sense whatsoever, of course, but it’s a nice line.

    It makes no sense because, as Alex Neil and other MSPs will often remind you, Jeremy Hunt’s remit does not extend north of the border. Even before the Scottish parliament was established, the NHS, like education and much else, was run out of the Scottish Office, not from the English department of health. The systems have, most of the time, been largely similar. They have, nevertheless, been modestly distinct.

    So god knows how Jeremy Hunt can wreck a service over which he has no great control. Perhaps he has magic powers or something. Gosh, he keeps them very well hidden, doesn’t he?

    And, lo, Alex Neil will tell you this himself:

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    1. Erm... did you listen to any of this?

      The health service is and always has been separate, and Hunt may not have any power here but two things I'd sway.

      1. Regardless of who is in power in Westminster. We will get a percentage of what the English decide to spend on health.

      If they chose to spend less because they have privatised a lot of their services or farmed them out to companies which will do a bad job for less money, with untrained staff.

      We allow people from another country to decide what we spend on running our own affairs.

      2. Labour's health spokesperson says he will undo some of the Tory changes, however it is unlikely that he will be able to.... at least for some time, because these fat cats will have contracts sewn up good and proper.

      However, the same bloke says that we should have the same health service all over this union. And I'm guessing that that means that the Celtic countries will have to fall in line with England, because I sure as hell don;t see the entire English system.

      So although it may not be as disastrously bad as what the Tories would have, it will still be grim.

      So... I'm sure if you ask Alex Neil he will tell you that it would be better if we could control our own health service in our own way, like any other country.

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  10. Neil has issued new guidance to all health boards which states they must submit plans for their use of the independent health sector, and all significant spending must now be agreed by ministers.

    [...] “I have asked health boards to clearly set out in their plans for future years how they plan to use the private sector, and report back to me on how they will reduce their spending in this area.”

    [...] “This should be seen in stark contrast to the competition, privatisation and complicated reforms being ­introduced in England that I believe threaten the very foundations on which the NHS is built.”

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  11. Since it is reported that fewer than 0.5% of NHS patients in Scotland are ever treated, even in part, by the private sector this might be thought a disproportionate over-reaction to a “problem” that scarcely exists. Then again, the problem is one of something working in practice but not in theory…

    Moreover, it is a reminder that the SNP’s thirst to concentrate power, even on relatively trivial matters such as this, in Edinburgh is unquenchable. Anyone who thinks independence will solve that problem is hopelessly naive. Independence is actually one of the party’s more reasonable policies; it’s everything else that’s concerning (cf education, justice etc etc ad nauseam).

    The best interests of individual patients? That’s a different matter entirely and not one that matters very much. At best it is a secondary concern. It’s the ideology, you see, not what works. Reform is just a club in London. And London is bad, too

    Read more at http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/alex-massie/2014/01/the-snps-blinkered-ideologically-driven-approach-to-the-nhs-is-typically-dismal/

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    1. It's not about the SNP; it's about independence and possible a Labour government or a Liberal/Labour government...

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  12. I've just tweeted a link to the video to BBC Scotland News,STV News,Channel 4 News, Channel 5 News and SKY News and asked as they didn't report on the important news items of yesterday, pensions in indy Scotland safe, then perhaps they will report on this one.

    Don't hold your breath folks, I am not holding mine!

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    1. Let us know if you get a reply Arbroath... I doubt you will.

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  13. I've said it before and I am certain I will say it again; if the vote goes No then I am emigrating. The UK is rapidly becoming a 2nd world country.

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    1. If the vote is no, it is a serious consideration for all people who CAN emigrate to do so.

      Old people, poor people, sick people won't be able to.

      But I'd advise anyone just leaving uni with a decent degree to consider carefully whether or not they want to live in the UK.

      It's fast becoming a country like it was before the wars broke down the class barriers, and drained the bank accounts of the super rich... and the trades unions started fighting for rights for the workers, the unemployed and the old.

      If I were 21 with no commitments I wouldn't stay.

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  14. Tris

    One of the things that always annoys myself about debates on the NHS and the opposition parties in Scotland is there failure to acknowledge that once funding is cut in England a percentage is then cut in Scotland. Ultimately this could mean that the privatisation of the NHS in Scotland could be forced through via consistent cuts in England resulting in no other options in Scotland due to a lack of funding.

    Bruce

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    1. That's it in a nutshell.

      We (the Celtic nations) certainly have the right to do what we want with the money that England gives us back from our taxes. So we could keep our health spending up, but we would have to let something else go

      Most countries actually raise the taxes that their policies need, rather than run their policies dependent on what another government decides its priorities are.

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  15. Just watched it on "Wings", if you ever needed a reason to vote YES, heypresto there it is. JimnArlene

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    1. I noticed that Stuart had posted on it too...

      Much better. He has a FAR larger readership.

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  16. Pity you put my name there tris as Dean won't watch it now.

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    1. LO< I'm sure Dean will have watched it. If not here, on Wings.

      This is far too important for personal disagreements.

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    2. The interesting thing about this video is when I saw it yesterday it had less than a hundred views and it is now over 1400 through the power of blogs, twitter and facebook reaching a growing audience all good for democracy around the world.

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    3. Yes, it is.

      You'd have thought that with something as important to its licence fee payers in Scotland as a doctor suggesting that melt down will occur in the health service, the BBC might have thought that it was worth reporting on.

      But hey... £145 worth of unionism.

      I expect they hope that the Tories will allow them to put the licence fee us if they win the referendum for them, then they can all treat themselves to bigger pay rises and more first class flights... not to mention the sex!.

      It was the BBC wot done it???

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