To start, a classic example of one of the reasons the West is in terminal decline; when government appointees can waste time on utter crap like this we know we are in the death throes of western civilisation:
Nothing should surprise us any more. After all, they declare that a 5-year-old is apparently old enough to decide they’re the opposite gender but a 15-year-old is too young to use social media. The people in charge of this country have completely lost their minds.
The rise of the Greens is no surprise either. With all the parties failing to grasp what is fundamentally wrong in the country, with the possible exception of Rupert Lowe who currently can only loudly point out the obvious, the Greens have taken the space to supply a safe haven for all those virtual signallers that ‘care’ about things. The fact that the party has been taken over by complete lunatics somehow escapes scrutiny.
We currently have a government and indeed the majority of the HoC filled with people of a standard that is so far below that which is needed in these troubled times, that I can’t see any future for the country unless a Churchillian figure emerges from nowhere and saves us. There is no one or no party that has any power that inspires anyone at the moment. A nation that along with Allies saved Europe during WW11 is rapidly becoming a backwater. We are not alone, Europe is in the same boat but I don’t really care about that in these times. Never have I heard so many people with negative doubts about the present and the future and the feelings of being betrayed at every turn by the powers that be.
With people like this, and she is not alone by any means, representing the public, what chance of any advancement do we have?
For months now the “Liebore” lot have been boasting about falling NHS England waiting lists. Apparently, the number on the waiting list fell by 80,000 in November, the last month the numbers were published. But how was that achieved when the same figures show a drop of 10% in operations and people seen in appointments?
And now this……
I personally on another visit to the local hospital came across yet more nonsense in the way the trust is run. Two visits actually. The first required an ambulance; four hours after the initial call it arrived despite urgent calls in the meantime. On arrival at A&E a further four hours were spent in the car park awaiting a vacant bed in the emergency ward.
A chat with the ambulance crew revealed all : they are being used as an overflow ward in the car park. This means their main purpose, to get to people and take them to hospital is now a secondary requirement. They are well aware of this but cannot speak out for fear of losing their jobs! So they request that patients complain!
This system means that crews are stuck in the car park for hours and not out doing what we consider ambulance crews should do. It not only endanger lives but is a waste of manpower and dangerous to waiting patients. Who thinks these decisions are good practice?
A second item came to notice on my second visit, something that had caught my eye several times before but was not a priority at the time. This occasion resulted in a move to a ward in the evening. It is obvious that hospitals have become 9-5 operations and Monday – Friday, matching GP surgeries: it’s not a good idea to become unwell on a weekend in this country.
The change of ward meant a long journey through the corridors and up two floors. It became very obvious that the general silence was not because of a desire for quiet at night but because there was nothing happening. Why? A large number of wards were closed, no lights, no activity at all. This did not make sense when the same hospital has patients in corridors, so why?
It appears that when the Norfolk &Norwich hospital was built about fifteen years ago, replacing the old hospital in the city centre, it was as is usual in this country massively over budget. The trust could not afford the many alterations and improvements that were added to the original plan and Serco actually purchased the hospital and leased it back to the NHS trust.
Serco of course also provide all the services, so though the hospital operates under the NHS flag it does not actually own it.
Quite extraordinary that this situation exists, and naturally further extensions and improvements are announced but seemingly never finished within the time frame stipulated or the original budget. As they are PFI projects we should not be surprised that contractual ‘issues’ pushed the price up.
Still as with most things it is good to see that the NHS has got its priorities right…….
Doctors told to avoid phrases such as ‘raining cats and dogs’ and ‘the early bird catches the worm’ to avoid offending foreign patients
It is amazing that when anything is built in the public sector the cost and time frame for completion go out of the window. None of these problems ever arise if a new superstore is built and penalty clauses are part of the deal; perhaps, in fact I am sure, we would be better off if Tesco were put in charge of these projects.
Now it would be easy to state this is a one off, but apparently not as regards closed areas. My sister for instance attends two different west London hospitals and one of them has closed areas. How many others are there ?
I also had a long chat with a newly qualified nurse who was giving me details about those who qualify not being able to get jobs in the NHS as they prefer the cheaper labour they import. This gives rise to the false belief the NHS would collapse if they banned all immigrant staff; it wouldn’t as there is a large pool of qualified Brits waiting for the jobs, so another lie.
Mr Streeting of course like all before him is all mouth and trousers. So called improvements in waiting lists have been proved to be simple juggling acts with the figures and methods of calculation. His pledge of no more money without changes have been shown to be just words.
The NHS is at the point of being not fit for purpose in many departments. We all pay for this sub standard service and it is not lack of money or personnel, far from it with the latter, but unless someone gets a grip on it and makes real change and not cosmetic, we are in trouble. The NHS is now at the bottom in many areas of care compared with equivalent health care systems. The scare mongering that we will follow the American system is just that, scaremongering. It is all the other systems that are superior that should be studied and if an insurance model is proved to be better so be it.
Otherwise the decline will continue and we will resemble, as my earlier piece described in the local A&E for example, a scene from a third world country. The acceptance of corridor care in the NHS as the norm shows the way.
As light relief from all this we face a week of “he said, you said” in Parliament and everywhere else over the PM’s disastrous choice of Mandelson as UK Ambassador. He (Starmer) really is clueless but we will have probably to suffer more of him as the alternatives are worse. The state of us!
It’s good to know that our PM is on the ball, see this on the day the straits of Hormuz reopened, and he went to Paris to announce his ‘plan’, God help us:
I’ve just discovered through FOIs that Bracknell Forest Council has spent over £74,000 on translation services for Afghan arrivals since April.
Why is that level of translation needed when residents were told they had served our armed forces as translators?
I’ve also been asking the council, MoD and Home Office for months now how many actually served our armed forces, but they’ve refused to release the information.
What is going on here?
Why are translation services needed for translators?
How many of the Afghan arrivals actually served our armed forces?
And if not many, why was it implied most had?
Because right now it’s starting to look like the public’s admiration for our armed forces was played on to stop debate and push this policy through.
Bond markets react:
The highest they were during the Truss government was:
10-year - 4.3% (today 4.78%)
30-year - - 4.8% (today 5.49%)
