Anyone aware of this!!!

[Octopus]

Its interesting that Mr Hollande of France stated that there would be no renegotiation of the EU a few months back when Cameron raised this.

Now he's had a drumming at the polls from the right wing, he says that the EU needs to be reviewed!

 

[Adam W]

Speaking of privatising the NHS I found this article quite interesting:
DOMINIC LAWSON: The Tories' silence over the success of this privately run NHS hospital is shameful | Mail Online

Essentially a failing hospital has been turned around by putting doctors and nurses in charge instead of managers and accountants, rewarding staff based on performance rather than years service, and cutting costs by reducing bureaucracy and allowing staff to choose the equipment they want instead of having to go through the NHS 'approved suppliers'. The result is patient care has improved, staff are more motivated and the hospital has become more financially efficient.
This isn't to say patients now have to pay for their care or that pennies are being pinched, just that there has been a shift in the management structure; the idea of offering healthcare with no consideration for the cost sounds nice, but as has been demonstrated if you put a bureaucrat in charge and throw money at it the money seems to get spent on bureaucracy instead of patient care.

The point of the article is that even though patient care has been improved, which you would think is a good thing, it has happened via private means and a lot of people don't like to hear 'NHS' and 'private sector' in the same sentence.

 

[7029 dave]

Scotland here I come.

 

[Simonslimline]

So charging fees for appointments etc was voted against. Good news for now.


BBC News - GPs say no to charging patients

 

[jaypp]

Speaking of privatising the NHS I found this article quite interesting:
DOMINIC LAWSON: The Tories' silence over the success of this privately run NHS hospital is shameful | Mail Online

Essentially a failing hospital has been turned around by putting doctors and nurses in charge instead of managers and accountants, rewarding staff based on performance rather than years service, and cutting costs by reducing bureaucracy and allowing staff to choose the equipment they want instead of having to go through the NHS 'approved suppliers'. The result is patient care has improved, staff are more motivated and the hospital has become more financially efficient.
This isn't to say patients now have to pay for their care or that pennies are being pinched, just that there has been a shift in the management structure; the idea of offering healthcare with no consideration for the cost sounds nice, but as has been demonstrated if you put a bureaucrat in charge and throw money at it the money seems to get spent on bureaucracy instead of patient care.

The point of the article is that even though patient care has been improved, which you would think is a good thing, it has happened via private means and a lot of people don't like to hear 'NHS' and 'private sector' in the same sentence.

Good article that, thanks for posting. I'm guessing there will be more underlying reasons for them keeping quiet in addition to privatisation fears and the election though! Time will tell and you can guarantee it's already been decided by those in power (and those that might be in the future). It's well known that the Public Sector wastes fortunes, where else do businesses run at a loss? Surely there has to be a way to combine the two, giving services etc. to the masses (some of which may need subsidising) along with Private Sector business methods?

 

[trev]

Apply the same theory to education and we're all back in Victorian England.

 

[Adam W]

Apply the same theory to education and we're all back in Victorian England.

How so?

 

[trev]

Well if everything has to be ran on a business model it follows that education must be made to pay its' way since it is delivered free of charge at the point of delivery, just like healthcare.

If you were made to pay directly for your children's education could you afford to educate them all to the same standard? If not, which one gets the good stuff and why do the others miss out?

 

[jaypp]

Apply the same theory to education and we're all back in Victorian England.

The 'old days' were the best though!!!:wink5:

 

[trev]

Aye, you could leave your door open all night and no one would nick anything. On the down side though, everyone had rickets and died of diptheria at 12 years old.

 

[jaypp]

Good article that, thanks for posting. I'm guessing there will be more underlying reasons for them keeping quiet in addition to privatisation fears and the election though! Time will tell and you can guarantee it's already been decided by those in power (and those that might be in the future). It's well known that the Public Sector wastes fortunes, where else do businesses run at a loss? Surely there has to be a way to combine the two, giving services etc. to the masses (some of which may need subsidising) along with Private Sector business methods?

Meant a way to give best of both Trev! Not a fee paying system, although we all pay 'fees' (taxes)

 

[trev]

I like the idea of everyone's taxes going into one big pot and that being used to provide what I think are essential services. I think some things are too important to be ran as businesses, take a look at the record of everything this lot have ran on business principles. We end up getting shafted.
Do you really want to see healthcare go that way?

 

[Octopus]

I like the idea of everyone's taxes going into one big pot and that being used to provide what I think are essential services. I think some things are too important to be ran as businesses, take a look at the record of everything this lot have ran on business principles. We end up getting shafted.
Do you really want to see healthcare go that way?

Are those the same essential services I want? The problem with the NHS, as with all Public Sector organisations is that it always depends on the area you come under. Take Scotland for example - free healthcare and nursing homes for all and free Universities for all Scottish people.

 

[trev]

there is absolutely no good reason why exactly the same cannot be provided across the UK as a whole mate. Instead the government wants to spend £60 billion so people from Brum can get into London 15 minutes or so quicker than they do at present, £90 billion on a system of nuclear weapons that we all know will never be used. These two projects alone are going to come in massively over budget as we all know.
Now if you had £150 billion to spend what are you going to do? Buy a big train set and a stick that won't be used or are you going to look after some old people who have paid taxes most of their lives? Maybe improve things in schools instead of cutting £100 million from the education budget and giving £62 million of that to NINE of Michael Gove's idiotic free schools.

 

[jaypp]

I like the idea of everyone's taxes going into one big pot and that being used to provide what I think are essential services. I think some things are too important to be ran as businesses, take a look at the record of everything this lot have ran on business principles. We end up getting shafted.
Do you really want to see healthcare go that way?

I could give you countless (I can only count to twenty, then I need more fingers and toes!) examples of being shafted by the healthcare system, but these are far outweighed by the millions of people that benefit from a system for everyone, no matter what your financial circumstances are. I think I am in agreement with you in that it (the article Adam posted), if implemented everywhere, would be the start of full privatisation over time, with everyone scratching their heads wondering 'how did that happen?'
With regard to wasting money, a friend was implementing something for a local council that needed an 'app'. This had to be sourced via 'approved companies' even though a proven (in France) one was already available, wasting months and hence £'s, and ended up in being that very same app offered at a hugely inflated price. Wonder if any Directors of these approved companies would be names we'd recognise?!!!