Let's talk about the The National Health Service !

Cameron’s devious manipulation of mortality figures to make his 24/7 NHS election

Common Decency

What is a lie ?

How much cherry-picking of statistics, concealment of part of the picture, and sheer misinformation, constitute an untruth ?

Well, this is a very typical example to consider, sadly, of Cameron’s willingness to use subtle manipulations of the true facts in a case (doubtless served up by his ‘think-tank’, funded by the super-rich of Britain), in order to make a statement that LOOKS really promising, but in fact makes no sense, and, if implemented, would actually make matters worse.

OK – we all know that in reality, this David Cameron announcement is probably pure spin – an exercise dreamt up by Cameron’s propaganda team, to paint a picture of a David Cameron who HASN’T been privatising our precious NHS – a man who actually cares about patients needing treatment on the weekends. What a wonderful ruse ! What a great vote-winner !!!

But just supposing there were any substance to what he’s saying – that the NHS is letting people down on Saturdays and Sundays – THEN WHY THE HELL HASN’T HE DONE SOMETHING ABOUT IT OVER THE LAST 5 YEARS ?

Hello ? Who has been running the NHS SINCE 2010 ? None other than this smiling man, pictured in a lovely choreographed trip to a hospital accompanied by TV cameras – that whiz-kid full of brilliant ideas to try to get himself back into power on May 7th ! Yep – we naive British swallow it all whole, David !!!

Here’s what Louise Irvine says about ’24/7 care apparently offered by Cameron in his last-minute attempt to pretend that he cares about the NHS.

STATEMENT FROM DR LOUISE IRVINE OF THE NATIONAL HEALTH ACTION PARTY
reacting to David Cameron’s 24/7 NHS pledge

“This a rather desperate attempt by David Cameron to bribe voters with a policy that’s already in place, money that doesn’t exist and misleading information.

Mr Cameron seems to be using rather inconclusive evidence about mortality rates at weekends to justify a move to 24/ 7 day non-emergency NHS services. But trying to implement what would be a 40% service increase to cover weekends without adequate funding for extra staff and support would just mean existing services would be spread even more thinly and this could result in a decline in quality of services throughout the week and we could end up with higher mortality rates every day of the week.

This government’s underfunding of our NHS has already pushed it to the cliff edge. It’s reckless of David Cameron to pledge to extend NHS care so that scheduled operations and appointments can happen at weekends unless he backs that up with money that isn’t recycled or previously committed”

1) Jeremy Hunt recently claimed on TV that Cameron’s NHS ‘reforms’ are saving about £1.5bn a year. Read this for the truth ! http://t.co/GX2u8CmP4z (Generally believed to have cost ~£3 billion).

2) Hunt also claims the Government has increased the number of nurses. The Royal College of Nurses has estimated a loss of ~6,000 nurses.
– http://www.rcn.org.uk/newsevents/press_releases/uk/nhs_sleepwalking_into_crisis_-_rcn
– http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/aug/21/nhs-figures-reveal-fewer-nurses

Any increase in nurse numbers is in part-time and lower grade/less qualified nurses. So Hunt is comparing apples with oranges. The only honest way to compare is to count whole-time equivalent jobs – ie: to count 2 half-time jobs as 1, not 2, as the Government does.

3) Hunt says the Government has increased the number of doctors. This is misleading. In fact, the population has increased by 2 million, which means number of doctors per 1000 population – the only meaningful figure – has gone down.”

Well, all this info I’m quoting is direct from people who actually administer the NHS, and are appalled that Cameron has been on the one hand saying that he is ‘protecting and reforming’ the NHS, but on the other hand, in reality, parcelling bits of it up and facilitating the sale of these bits to entrepreneurs, to make a profit out of our health care.