What is wrong with putting one's country first? Why has no one chastised Scotland for changing their political landscape by voting for a nationalist party? Is no one here fearful of fascist jackboots marching down the M1? Going back to the original topic, when the NHS began the population was 49.5m. During the decade (mid 70s - mid 80s) I worked in the NHS the population rose from 56.2m to 56.6m. Today the UK population is just shy of 70m. National statistics show that this is largely due to immigration by women of child-bearing age.According to the British Heart Foundation, the number of hospital visits made by people suffering from heart failure has risen by 35% over the past decade.Due to lobbying by cancer patients, THe Cancer Drugs Fund budget has risen from £50m in 2010/11 to £340m in 2018/19.Due to Blair abolishing the opt-out as soon as he gained office in 1997, if NICE recommends a new medicine, the NHS in England and Wales is legally obliged to make the treatment available.The NHS has always been hopelessly inefficient and too large to scrutinise effectively., manifesting the worst excesses of any corporate firm, with bloated, overpaid "administration" and frontline staff doing second jobs to pay the bills.When I was working, we were menaced on a daily basis by those belonging to unions. I remember pushing a trolley when heavily pregnant, past the POrter's room full of cigarette smoke and copies of "The Socialist Worker". It was their "tea-break". If a porter saw you change a light-bulb, they went on strike. It took six different coloured carbon copies to requisition anything, with several weeks' wait, which resulted in a vast amount of over-ordering and wastage. Having obtained the urgently-needed shelves for my office, no one would come within four weeks to put them up. An exasperated orthopaedic surgeon brought in a drill and screws from home, whilst the secretaries stood guard at the door, ready to knock if a porter approached. Due to union protectionism and aggression, pilfering was blatant and unpunished, until one brave and persistent soul alerted that a porter had pilfered not only toasters and kettles from the hospital kitchen, but a dialysis machine. No checks, no balances.The NHS has been partially "privatised" for decades. As soon it opened in the 70's, Charing Cross Hospital, reserved the 15th floor exclusively for private patients, not least to keep consultants on-site and away from Harley Street. Many other London hospitals did the same. An historic lack of clear accounting costs made it impossible to tell how much, if any, net revenue was derived from this activity, although it was recently estimated that Private Patient Units (PPUs) in London NHS hospitals account for nearly 60% of the estimated £596m raised.Given the ongoing lack of clarity over costs, price-setting for drugs globally is a negotiation between the pharmaceutical companies and national governments, or insurance companies. Many countries use "international reference pricing" which typically involves setting the maximum price that they are willing to pay. This encourages pharmaceutical companies to delay launching medicines in "reference countries" where any drop in prices will impact on the price it can charge in others.Doctors are now so fearful of litigation, that they massively over-prescribe to cover themselves legally, leaving no diagnostic stone unturned. My elderly mother was discharged from hospital after a suspected UTI, with two huge blister packs the size of a tea-tray, each blister rattling with drugs she did not need. She only needed one drug out of five, and only one of the two inhalers. She was given not one, but two huge boxes of two different laxatives, neither of which was needed. The failure to update computerised "repeat prescriptions" also contributes to huge amounts of drugs being prescribed that the patient no longer needs.I returned them to the GP, in the hope that they could be re-cycled. No, they had to go in the bin.Nostalgiafests like BBC's "Call the Midwife" hark back to a time when the population was far lower, with expectations to match. We need to put sentiment aside about our "precious" NHS and deal with 21st Century needs, which are unsustainable without a good business plan.As for the chlorinated chickens - you have a choice, but no choice about the fluoride (a neurotoxin) in much of the UK's drinking water. If only the same time and energy were directed at resolving our own domestic issues, as that wasted by fanatics laying false accusations at the doorstep of the World's number 1 recipient of left-wing hatred.
Chantal Blake-Milton ● 2714d