The NHS and…. Tory Scum Hashtag Copyright

by redosiris

Today is the first day that the NHS can begin making up to half its income from private patients and it’s the next step up this dreary staircase towards full privatisation. Not modernising, not streamlining or rationalising – privatising. At the moment, what this does is create a two-tier system which means the rich can move ahead with their own surgery, in NHS time, from NHS doctors for a no doubt inflamed liver after too much Chateau Briand and Fois Gras while the rest of us have to line up politely behind for our urgent cancer treatment. There has already been a case of a private hospital that take NHS cases delaying operations for non-fee paying customers to try and get them to consider spending the money to queue jump.

The NHS has saved the lives of friends and relatives of mine, the people who work in it are superb and reports of its lack of sustainability are nothing more than lies and PR spin. There is one reason, and one reason only why the government are seeking to privatise this beloved institution and its money. The dying age of capitalism is a wounded beast and like all wounded beasts it is at its most dangerous now. There is nothing the rich will not do, no stone they will leave unturned in their quest for more money and power. They are psychopathic in this singular pursuit of wealth.

There is already one NHS hospital that has been sold and a second, the ironically titled George Eliot Hospital is next, and the only companies in the running for the contract just happen to have donated £2.4million to the Conservative Party. Of course this figure is nothing when compared with the amount of lobbying done to get the policy through in the first place. In the last decade or so the private health industry has donated over £14million to Tory coffers with chief fundraiser and donor Lord Ashcroft being prominent for his Medacs firm. Given that the NHS annual budget of around £106 billion, the privatisation of it has come at an awfully low price wouldn’t you agree? Profit making corporations now control £5 billion worth of our NHS. This will grow to £7 billion this year and every single contract of value above £20m has been won by a Tory donor. Trebles all round! Especially among the nine MPs who have collectively signed off £4 billion of NHS contracts in the past 8 months to companies they have personally received brib… sorry, donations or wages from.

Tory friends in the media have made sure people aren’t aware of what has been going on with an 8000 word report being released detailing how the NHS has been betrayed by another beloved public institution, the BBC.

Another tactic has been to make people believe this is necessary be deliberately sabotaging the NHS from within. Recent figures show that:

  • 25 A & E Wards are in the process of closing
  • 300 Ambulance Stations are being sold
  • 42,000 NHS staff have been sacked as of Spetember 2012 and yes that figure includes front line staff

Is it any wonder that 2012 saw the biggest drop in patient satisfaction in 30 years? The service is being destroyed in a premeditated fashion. And what of the people who have come in thanks to the new Act which has brought the private sector in to the fold?

  • In 2012, every major private healthcare provider, that’s: Virgin, Serco, Care UK, Circle, Spire, BMI, BUPA and Barchester have failed Care Quality Commission Inspections – but that’s OK because the Tories have decided the Care Quality Commission is a troublesome priest and are getting rid of it now.
  • From September 2012, North-Yorkshire has been placed in control of private consultancy firms who are advocating a) Less health visitors, b) Reduced treatments for minor injuries, mental health c) An end to follow up checks d) A reduction in the number of beds.
  • Agency spend is up 50% in 2012 which spreads the wealth to other areas of private interest, usually owned by the same people
  • Spending on negligence payouts have risen £500m in 2012 under the Tories.

The Tories have wanted rid of the NHS since its inception. It goes against everything they stand for – the every man for himself attitude and if you’re too poor to afford treatment then it’s your own fault. Social Darwinism and the Malthusian moment captured in the blink of one policy. The Freddy Krueger films of the 1980s had the tagline, don’t fall asleep. This is the Nightmare on Health Street, and whatever you do, don’t get sick.

(thanks to Eoin Clarke for many of the figures)