Winter fuel payment

[Boomer54]

2 hours ago, wharfhouse said:

I worked recently on helping to develop an IT system for one of the NHS Trusts. The biggest issue was that no-one in the NHS IT team had a clue about how to write a specification for what they wanted. So, we would be delivering functionality based on loose specs so they could see how something worked and then they would decide whether they liked that or wanted to change it. The problem then comes as times goes on that they kept changing their minds about earlier features as we rolled out new features which meant that to make those changes we had to go back and undo a load of stuff that we had been settled earlier. The costs of all of this just kept compounding until they ran out of money and still didn't have something fit for purpose. The NHS staff (at least from my experience) are wholly in capable of managing any IT project. We kept trying to explain the consequences of their approach but they just wouldn't listen (or understand). We had meetings and meetings of loads of people, most who I couldn't work out what they did day-to-day. Most (if not all) just seemed to be there to fill their time from 9-5 each day and then go home and forget about whatever it was they came to the meeting for...

The harsh reality is in it's public format the NHS too big, too unwieldy, too fragmented and on and on, to ever be made operationally efficient. That is why the legend that was JHJ walked away. It can't be done without almost starting again which is not going to happen. Plan B which is happening is a system where gradually the private sector take on more and more of the public caseload. Trouble is the timeline looks so long none of us are going to see how it works out.

[Phil xxkr]

1 hour ago, Malc1 said:

I’m thinking as an OAP and well versed in drugs he just might be the dose of salts the NHS needs, or seriously doesn’t need ( who knows 😅) and most definitely his Team around him might well have some useful input to our revered NHS …….. for it’s they who have possibly kept him in the picture when a good deal has emerged ……. again, who knows ……. he’s possibly been voiding use of the NHS for very many decades and might need a short sharp shock to learn and understand what the NHS is all about ……. he could join Wes Streeting  Starmer. Reeves and all on that Training Course ….. but who could be their tutor one asks 😂🤣

Malc 

Best just to give em all another 5% pay rise and blame 14 years of Conservative Govt adding yet another £10bn to this amazing Black Hole …… makes sense ….. gotta blame someone else 🥵😰👏👏👏

Malc 

You're not going to like me for this but are you aware of Age Champions from Age Uk? They are MP's who have pledged to support older people and their quality of life. Unbelievably on the list are Labour MP's who voted with the government to stop the WFA. 😱😱😱. 

A spokesman from the OED said there are no words to describe this 😕

[Boomer54]

5 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

You're not going to like me for this but are you aware of Age Champions from Age Uk? They are MP's who have pledged to support older people and their quality of life. Unbelievably on the list are Labour MP's who voted with the government to stop the WFA. 😱😱😱. 

A spokesman from the OED said there are no words to describe this 😕

I can think of one word that describes it very well. Hypocrisy.

[LenT]

1 hour ago, Boomer54 said:

Trouble is the timeline looks so long none of us are going to see how it works out.

Well, you can at least try, Stephen. 

[Phil xxkr]

30 minutes ago, LenT said:

Well, you can at least try, Stephen. 

Edmund Burke! 

[LenT]

1 hour ago, Boomer54 said:

Plan B which is happening is a system where gradually the private sector take on more and more of the public caseload.

Oh, the irony!

In opposition the clarion call was to rally against the evil Tory Plan to privatise OUR NHS!  But then they also decried the Tory consideration to cease the WFA.

Funny how attitudes change when you actually become responsible for getting things done.

[Boomer54]

1 hour ago, LenT said:

Oh, the irony!

In opposition the clarion call was to rally against the evil Tory Plan to privatise OUR NHS!  But then they also decried the Tory consideration to cease the WFA.

Funny how attitudes change when you actually become responsible for getting things done.

In truth I think you will find this really got legs during the Consrvative term of office. Although I suspect that even pragmatic Labour MP's understand that shrinking waiting lists is only going to happen by subborning the private sector.

[Malc1]

To my certain knowledge, personally, the NHS had sent me to a Private Hospital ( Kims Maidstone ) for an NHS funded operation quite some years back 

It is of course the same surgeons that spread their time between their NHS duties, Private Hospital duties and their own Private Clinics ……. this hasn’t changed for years and I’m sure will continue unabated for the greater benefit of all us impoverished NHS patients 

This system seems to work ok, well for me anyway thankfully 😅 

So far as I’m concerned the NHS is functioning very well and in a timely fashion …… long may it continue to do so for the greater good of us impoverished ……. and other plebs 🤞👍🙏

Malc 

[Tickedon]

1 hour ago, Boomer54 said:

In truth I think you will find this really got legs during the Consrvative term of office. Although I suspect that even pragmatic Labour MP's understand that shrinking waiting lists is only going to happen by subborning the private sector.

Independent analysis shows there was no marked increase in “privatisation” under the Conservatives:

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/big-election-questions-nhs-privatised

”Overall, there is no evidence of a significant increase in spending on private providers or widespread privatisation of services in recent years.”

It should be remembered that Labour baked in private sector involvement from the founding of the NHS - at the time of its creation the doctor’s union required GP practices to remain independent and private, outside the NHS.

Conservative governments have ran the NHS for nearly two-thirds of its existence, and yet it’s still standing. Stop drinking the Labour kool aid and “24 hours to save the NHS” slogans, take off the blinders, and consider how we have an NHS fit for the 21st century.

[Phil xxkr]

3 hours ago, LenT said:

Oh, the irony!

In opposition the clarion call was to rally against the evil Tory Plan to privatise OUR NHS!  But then they also decried the Tory consideration to cease the WFA.

Funny how attitudes change when you actually become responsible for getting things done.

The vocabulary of the political left is fascinating. For example, it is considered to be 'materialistic' and 'greedy' to want to keep what you have earned. But it is 'idealistic' to want to take away what someone else has earned and spend it for your own political benefit or to feel good about yourself.

Thomas Sowell 

[Phil xxkr]

2 minutes ago, Tickedon said:

Independent analysis shows there was no marked increase in “privatisation” under the Conservatives:

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/big-election-questions-nhs-privatised

”Overall, there is no evidence of a significant increase in spending on private providers or widespread privatisation of services in recent years.”

It should be remembered that Labour baked in private sector involvement from the founding of the NHS - at the time of its creation the doctor’s union required GP practices to remain independent and private, outside the NHS.

Conservative governments have ran the NHS for nearly two-thirds of its existence, and yet it’s still standing. Stop drinking the Labour kool aid and “24 hours to save the NHS” slogans, take off the blinders, and consider how we have an NHS fit for the 21st century.

Don't you just love the facts 👍I certainly do! 

[Boomer54]

1 hour ago, Tickedon said:

Independent analysis shows there was no marked increase in “privatisation” under the Conservatives:

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/big-election-questions-nhs-privatised

”Overall, there is no evidence of a significant increase in spending on private providers or widespread privatisation of services in recent years.”

It should be remembered that Labour baked in private sector involvement from the founding of the NHS - at the time of its creation the doctor’s union required GP practices to remain independent and private, outside the NHS.

Conservative governments have ran the NHS for nearly two-thirds of its existence, and yet it’s still standing. Stop drinking the Labour kool aid and “24 hours to save the NHS” slogans, take off the blinders, and consider how we have an NHS fit for the 21st century.

Yes, and if we then proceed to read the entire article including the summary of course then their findings are not out of line with what I said. Indeed, given the date of that report I would be very interested to see where we are now several years on

I too love 'facts' as long as they are not cherrypicked.