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[Mister Rog]

I think he has had a rough time by being given tough assignments. He must be on a promise because he seems to always get the duff jobs.

I have not met him yet but I shall await judgement for the day (if) it happens.

Ms May was very clever in keeping him where he was after she took over at No 10. He started, so he should finish, and if it all went really badly she has a scapegoat. So far he's scraped through 

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Jeremy Hunt seems a bit of a knob, but we shouldn't blame him for the type of scenario described in Terberts thread about his daughters problems. These type of things (and worse) have been taking place long before Hunt was in his job. I have first hand experience of the horrors which happen in our saced cow, we call the NHS.
The problem is that the NHS is broken. Its not about money, its not about Govt. (mostly), its about the fact that it is now staffed by people, many of whom aren't there because they have a caring nature. Many of the ones I encountered don't even pretend to give a toss about the people they are supposed to be helping. This was experienced from porters, nurses, consultants, managers......
It runs the whole way through the system.
It seems to me that somewhere along the line, they have been given the impression that it is their NHS and exists for their benefit and convenience, with the patients being an irritation and distraction. Some of the treatment of very elderly vulnerable people, Ive seen by these "angels" made my blood boil.
The mass media however, mainly stick to the line that NHS employees are angels and heroes and we should all be eternally grateful for each and every one of them.
TB is right. It needs starting again with a clean sheet of paper, and no vested interest considered at any point.
The needs of the genuinely sick and ill, and value for money should be the only important considerations.
It is one of the worlds biggest gravy trains (approx. 1.2 million employees last time I checked) and that is the thing that needs to be changed.
Finding a politician who is honest, brave and clever enough to be able to sort that mess out is as likely as finding a bucket of hens teeth buried in a pile of rocking horse shit.
Someone from business may be able to help, but please not Branson or Sugar. They are both conmen and hypocrites of the highest calibre, particularily Branson.
I have a very deep loathing of that man. 

[ted_one]

Regretably it's to late to keep Branson out,as Virgin Care are already through the door and taking over the PCT's,so in a way TB and yourself may see your predictions come to fruition and we may well see the privatisation of the NHS. But with it comes a bit of a warning,that being the fact there is already an element of 'cherry picking'  by VC and guess which part of the service is going to suffer? No prizes for guessing that it is the long term chronically ill that are going to get the dirty end of the stick,and let's face it, is Branson doing this out of the goodness of his heart? think not, it's all about screwing over the good old penny wise and pound foolish NHS for every pound that they will hand over without question

[STEMO]

Depressing, isn't it? I won't bother trying to get treatment for it, though.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

I don't wish for the NHS to be privatised, and I certainly shudder at the news that one of the worlds most detestable dickheads is getting in on the act. That wont solve any of its problems. 
Personally I don't believe the NHS will ever be fully privatised.

[ted_one]

How are you going to fix it without a strong element of privatisation, and I agree with you on this one,but be assured ....the bungs are flying around as we speak,and as TB says that all politicians are scum, I also agree with his sentiments. But let's face it we can moan and complain about the NHS,but whoever is running it,the abuse will carry on regardless.

[Sir Tigger KC]

My local Medical Centre was taken over by Virgin Care and in short order all the long term established Doctors went in very controversial circumstances (as was VC taking over in the first place!) and now you're very lucky if you see the same Doctor twice. 

[New POD]

How are you going to fix it without a strong element of privatisation, and I agree with you on this one,but be assured ....the bungs are flying around as we speak,and as TB says that all politicians are scum, I also agree with his sentiments. But let's face it we can moan and complain about the NHS,but whoever is running it,the abuse will carry on regardless.

What is needed is NOT privatisation, but strong data driven leaders, who can think and plan decades ahead, rather than chasing around trying to save money this year, by cutting the essentials.  If we believed that the plan existed, and the NHS were spending money wisely, then we'd all be happy to pay higher taxes, if it were resulting in a better service.

I'm sure there is enough data, to be able to predict within a few percent all the likely demand, on the system. And then to work back from those demands to what the service needs to be able to provide day in day out.  Then Every Hospital Needs to standardise exactly how each medical demand is treated, and that standard method needs to be the most effective and efficient possible. And then having piloted the best way of doing everything, that needs to be rolled out. When an improvement in care or treatment is found, it should be rolled out as the new standard.

At present you have stupidity of blocked beds, because people can't go home because the council haven't put in place a home care package.  The council haven't put in place a care package in order to save a few £'s and yet that is wasting £££'s in the NHS.  So it should all be under one budget.

[STEMO]

A few assumptions there. You might be happy to throw more tax at a system that wastes billions, I  wouldn't.
And I think you'll councils haven't got the few £'s you claim they are saving.
There's too many immigrants using the NHS and too many working in it. I thought I'd stick that one in for good measure.

[Mister Rog]

So, a topic on Jeremy Hunt has developed into a discussion about the NHS in general.

Some bullet point . . . .  points

The NHS was not intended for the current workload

There is a culture in the NHS of avoiding any responsibility. A "What if" attitude instead of a "What can I do" attitude

Waste is endemic. Penny pinch, but spend thousands on vanity projects

If one really wanted improvement, fire most middle and upper management.

I could go on a very serious rant here, but I like to keep things concise. So I won't

Oh privatisation ? Is it really that much different to the internal departmental cross-charging that happens right now ?



 

[Bigron]

STEMO, as one who has had several hospital appointments of late (and LOTS of waiting), I agree with your comments regarding non-contributers to the NHS taking up resources, to our detriment.
However, the NHS should already be more than adequately funded, judging by the amount of money vired off from motoring taxes instead of being returned to road repairs and improvements - which is why they extorted it from us in the first place!
Let the politicians be honest (haha; haha; haha!) and declare what revenue goes to which resource?

Ron.

[Rods2]

The NHS is a Soviet based system and can never work efficiently or for the benefit of the patients rather than the system. I'm fortunate the my local hospital Frimley Park is one of the best in the country and most of the treatment I've had has been good to excellent, but I've also had bad experiences, especially near the end of the day appointments where staff want to get you out of the door and go home. The NHS is based upon pay up front through taxes and be grateful for what your given. Local GP service IMO is much more variable and generally much worse

The worst value for money system and most expensive system in the world (18% of US GDP) is the totally private monopoly system in the US. Prices are set annually by doctors with no price competition allowed and over-treatment fraud is rampant. The best is 50% public and 50% private French system where each half keep the other to high standards and efficiency. This also works well where heath care is paid by treating people and you get to choose who treats you.

Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore (expensive) are all meant to have much better systems than the NHS.

[biggriffin]

The problems with the NHS, is it's like the England manager's job, its a poison challise,
The politicians' use it as a football, back and forth, it shouldn't be run by political parties, or civil servants, its a business, and should be run as such.

 I cannot fault any of the care I've had lately, .

[driver115]

The clue as to the nature of this man is in his name, and representative of his party as well.What a joke watching him giving self applause during the tory party conference when aired recently on tv.

The tory party hate the NHS, its principles and all that it represents because it was the labour movement, working people and returning soldiers after WW2 that gave labour a landslide victory and mandate after this world war to introduce the NHS, the creation of the welfare state and free education for its citizens.It was labour who put the country back to work with  national reconstruction initiatives which included the house building programme, reinvestment and rebuilding of industry ravaged by the war, and social services and housing for all of those who needed these services.The tories absolutely loathe all of this, and this is why they have continued ever since to poke, prod and chip away at the NHS and other nationally provided services, and will continue to do so until every service is privatised and from which they as owners and shareholders make a profit at our expense. I priced up the cost of being hospitalised for just 1 day in the United States (without insurance), as being approx £8000 - do we really want privatisation like this here in the UK ?
The NHS is a service, not a business - we, our parents and grand parents have more than paid for and earned the right to use and access the NHS free of charge at point of need.Our children and grandchildren will no doubt do their bit to enable this to continue so for themselves and for the following generations.
yes, I agree with you JH is not a likeable person , and dangerous for what he represents


As the 5th or is it currently 6th richest country in the world , for the UK austerity has been a political choice, not an economic requirement - this is obviously the case because Mrs May did not blink at all earlier this Summer when she decided to spend over £100 billion (as there is no apparent upper limit to the total cost in the future) of our money for Hinkley Point Nuclear Power station which will provide only 7% of the energy needs of a few hundred thousand people, that is if it actually gets built and works ? The UK is blessed with its coastline, tidal power has largely been ignored so far in favour of profits for others at our expense called wind turbines both on and off shore.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Every Labour Government in history has ruined the economy. The Tories then get voted back in to clear up the mess, until they are so unpopular they get voted out, and the whole vicious circle starts again.
It kind of went wrong this time though, as Osborne was a boy doing a mans job and didn't manage to clear up much of the mess.
The national debt rose faster then ever, and espite the bleeding heart left wing hand wringing, there wasn't actually much austerity at all.
The cost of the welfare state also rose sharply under his tenure at the treasury.
Left wing thinking doesn't work, cant work, never has worked in the rwsal world and it never will.
Ive never voted Tory in my life by the way.