I'm booked in to lobby my MP about Lansley's deadly NHS reforms at on Friday 18th November, 10.30 in the morning at the Campus, in WSM, by Morrison's. Map.
John Penrose is a decent Tory who has emphasised his interest in the NHS during his election campaigns.
However, as a Tourism Minister he is uncritical of Lansley's plan to Americanise the NHS. It is going to take a lot of pressure to get him to vote against the Bill. But we can and should make it clear to him that NHS users in Weston are dead against what is planned.
I hope that others will book in slots to see him about it, and each time one of us in in with him, that there should be a crowd of pro-NHS voters outside the door, just standing there, discussing the situation with his minders, and even raising their voices to be heard through the door. Anything to show that the people are not happy with the proposed death of the NHS.
It is unlikely that there will be any more slots on Nov 18, but book other slots, (01934613841) and we will come and support you. If every one of his surgeries is taken up with NHS affairs, it may give him pause for thought.
So, any locals reading this - November 18, 1030am, Campus. Be there. Or get ill and die without free help.
Showing posts with label health services. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health services. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Defend the NHS or lose the NHS
This below is from 38 Degrees, campaigning to keep the NHS.
Joni Mitchell said it: "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?"
I feel it is very much up to NHS users to defend it, not me. I did my bit, providing the service.
My vision is of a mass lobbying of MP surgeries, lobbies that spill out onto the streets, and escalate into Arab Spring type protests, only without the live ammunition provided by the Army...you get the idea.
As a retired GP, I am waiting for the patients to do it. It is probably the result of repressed resentment at thoughtless abuse of the NHS' free treatment. I was a kind, humane, friendly GP, but there is a degree of fecklessness, thoughtlessness and entitlement that goes on, and that produces resentment deep down in even the kindest health service worker.
So basically my repressed shadow self is saying, "If you whingeing sickly bastards want a free NHS, you've got to demonstrate in the streets. If you don't demonstrate, you're going to have to do without, the rich are going to have to pay, and the poor are going to have to die. Your bloody choice".
Irrational, I know. But humans are irrational beings. And if my anger prompts people to demonstrate, it will have been worth while.
38 Degrees members now have something our MPs don't - thorough, independent legal advice about what these changes really mean.
Our expert legal advice is sobering. Despite the "listening exercise", the government's changes to the NHS plans could still pave the way for a shift towards a US-style health system, where private companies profit at the expense of patient care.
Conservative MPs like yours are being told by their bosses these changes fit with party ideology. But many would be horrified to know that the NHS would be subject to European competition laws and front-line services could be held up with procurement red tape. Let's work together to show them the evidence right now!
If enough of us email now, it could tip the balance:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/email-your-conservative-mp
Our independent lawyers identified two major problems in the new legislation:
1 - The Secretary of State's legal duty to provide a health service will be scrapped. On top of that, a new "hands-off clause" removes the government's powers to oversee local consortia and guarantee the level of service wherever we live. We can expect increases in postcode lotteries - and less ways to hold the government to account if the service deteriorates.
2 - The NHS will almost certainly be subject to UK and EU competition law and the reach of procurement law rules will extend across all NHS commissioners. Private health companies will be able to take new NHS commissioning groups to court if they don't win contracts. Scarce public money could be tied up in legal wrangles instead of hospital beds. Meanwhile, the legislation lifts the cap on NHS hospitals filling beds with private patients.
So who are MPs going to listen to when casting their vote - you, or lobbyists from private health companies? This is our NHS, and it's up to us to defend it. Email your MP now:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/email-your-conservative-mp
It's pretty extraordinary what we've managed to achieve together already. Nearly half a million of us have signed the petition to save the NHS. And after Andrew Lansley announced the last round of changes, thousands of 38 Degrees members immediately chipped in to get top independent legal advice on the new plans.
Barrister Rebecca Haynes found that the government's plans could pave the way for private healthcare companies and their lawyers to benefit most from changes, not patients. Another barrister, Stephen Cragg, found that we were right to be worried that Andrew Lansley was planning to remove his duty to provide our NHS.
This is the conclusion of a top legal team paid to have no other interest at heart but yours.
MPs vote in just seven days. Seven days to not only get the evidence, but be convinced there's way too much public concern to ignore it. The good news is, with over 800,000 of us now armed with expert legal advice, we are just the people to speak up. Our message is clear: we have the facts, so politicians can't hide behind spin. Let's give MPs from all parties the mandate they need to think again and vote against these changes to the NHS.
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/email-your-conservative-mp
More:
Joni Mitchell said it: "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?"
I feel it is very much up to NHS users to defend it, not me. I did my bit, providing the service.
My vision is of a mass lobbying of MP surgeries, lobbies that spill out onto the streets, and escalate into Arab Spring type protests, only without the live ammunition provided by the Army...you get the idea.
As a retired GP, I am waiting for the patients to do it. It is probably the result of repressed resentment at thoughtless abuse of the NHS' free treatment. I was a kind, humane, friendly GP, but there is a degree of fecklessness, thoughtlessness and entitlement that goes on, and that produces resentment deep down in even the kindest health service worker.
So basically my repressed shadow self is saying, "If you whingeing sickly bastards want a free NHS, you've got to demonstrate in the streets. If you don't demonstrate, you're going to have to do without, the rich are going to have to pay, and the poor are going to have to die. Your bloody choice".
Irrational, I know. But humans are irrational beings. And if my anger prompts people to demonstrate, it will have been worth while.
38 Degrees members now have something our MPs don't - thorough, independent legal advice about what these changes really mean.
Our expert legal advice is sobering. Despite the "listening exercise", the government's changes to the NHS plans could still pave the way for a shift towards a US-style health system, where private companies profit at the expense of patient care.
Conservative MPs like yours are being told by their bosses these changes fit with party ideology. But many would be horrified to know that the NHS would be subject to European competition laws and front-line services could be held up with procurement red tape. Let's work together to show them the evidence right now!
If enough of us email now, it could tip the balance:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/email-your-conservative-mp
Our independent lawyers identified two major problems in the new legislation:
1 - The Secretary of State's legal duty to provide a health service will be scrapped. On top of that, a new "hands-off clause" removes the government's powers to oversee local consortia and guarantee the level of service wherever we live. We can expect increases in postcode lotteries - and less ways to hold the government to account if the service deteriorates.
2 - The NHS will almost certainly be subject to UK and EU competition law and the reach of procurement law rules will extend across all NHS commissioners. Private health companies will be able to take new NHS commissioning groups to court if they don't win contracts. Scarce public money could be tied up in legal wrangles instead of hospital beds. Meanwhile, the legislation lifts the cap on NHS hospitals filling beds with private patients.
So who are MPs going to listen to when casting their vote - you, or lobbyists from private health companies? This is our NHS, and it's up to us to defend it. Email your MP now:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/email-your-conservative-mp
It's pretty extraordinary what we've managed to achieve together already. Nearly half a million of us have signed the petition to save the NHS. And after Andrew Lansley announced the last round of changes, thousands of 38 Degrees members immediately chipped in to get top independent legal advice on the new plans.
Barrister Rebecca Haynes found that the government's plans could pave the way for private healthcare companies and their lawyers to benefit most from changes, not patients. Another barrister, Stephen Cragg, found that we were right to be worried that Andrew Lansley was planning to remove his duty to provide our NHS.
This is the conclusion of a top legal team paid to have no other interest at heart but yours.
MPs vote in just seven days. Seven days to not only get the evidence, but be convinced there's way too much public concern to ignore it. The good news is, with over 800,000 of us now armed with expert legal advice, we are just the people to speak up. Our message is clear: we have the facts, so politicians can't hide behind spin. Let's give MPs from all parties the mandate they need to think again and vote against these changes to the NHS.
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/email-your-conservative-mp
More:
Dr Ron Singer: "Andrew Lansley is wrong - GPs do not support this NHS bill"
Dr Clare Gerada: "The health bill should be amended again or withdrawn"
Sir Roger Boyle: "It is horrific that the NHS's future is threatened"
Max Pemberton: "The day they signed the death warrant for the NHS"
UNISON: "Five reasons to scrap the Health and Social Care Bill"
Dr Clare Gerada: "The health bill should be amended again or withdrawn"
Sir Roger Boyle: "It is horrific that the NHS's future is threatened"
Max Pemberton: "The day they signed the death warrant for the NHS"
UNISON: "Five reasons to scrap the Health and Social Care Bill"
Monday, January 17, 2011
Debating Lansley's NHS reforms on Bristol Radio
I was woken by Radio Bristol asking if I could contribute to a programme this morning about Lansley's NHS "reforms".
So I did. I was first on, and I said that this is a major step towards privatising the NHS, because GPs will be required to put out to tender. It will cost £3 billion, which is stupid in a time of austerity. And that change should come bottom-up, not top-down. And I said that people should get out on the streets if they want to keep an NHS.
I listened to the subsequent discussion, and although most were against the new reforms, there was no sense of urgency about it.
People will one day get fired up about the NHS, but not yet. Not until it is too late.
"Don't it always seem to go,
So you don't know what you've got 'til its gone?
They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot" - Joni Mitchell.
This is the 3rd time in 2 weeks that Radio Bristol has contacted me. Which is nice. All about medical matters.
More on the NHS from this blog:
So I did. I was first on, and I said that this is a major step towards privatising the NHS, because GPs will be required to put out to tender. It will cost £3 billion, which is stupid in a time of austerity. And that change should come bottom-up, not top-down. And I said that people should get out on the streets if they want to keep an NHS.
I listened to the subsequent discussion, and although most were against the new reforms, there was no sense of urgency about it.
People will one day get fired up about the NHS, but not yet. Not until it is too late.
"Don't it always seem to go,
So you don't know what you've got 'til its gone?
They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot" - Joni Mitchell.
This is the 3rd time in 2 weeks that Radio Bristol has contacted me. Which is nice. All about medical matters.
More on the NHS from this blog:
- Testiculations
- Alternative plans from a group of doctors
- Lansley can be stopped
- The NHS is a slowly boiled frog. WAKE UP YOU NHS USERS!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The NHS is a slowly boiled frog. WAKE UP YOU NHS USERS!
Guardian: Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, announced today that the government will push ahead with radical plans to shake up the NHS – the biggest shift in power and accountability in its 62-year history – despite opposition from almost every part of the health service.
The NHS needs another immense top down bureaucratic Lansley reform like it needs a hole in the head drilled with a hand held brace using a blunt 1"auger and no anaesthetic.
As an NHS GP, I view Lansleys NHS changes with sullen resignation. I learned in the 90s from an experienced BMA leader that each and every NHS reform is another ratchet notch in the gradual privatisation of the NHS. It is like a frog in pan of water over a flame - the temperature is increasing so slowly that the frog makes no effort to escape.
In essence, the GPs will be obliged to give contracts either to private corporations or to NHS institutions. That is where the privatisation is creeping in.
How can we mobilise the people of Britain to stand up for the NHS? Will they write to their MPs? Would that have any real effect? Will they join demonstrations? If so, will the notorious interaction between provoking agents and police chiefs result in kettling and violence? If not, if the demonstrations are peaceful, will they be reported by the media?
I feel powerless and hopeless in this situation. Which is odd, because I believe that it is possible and worthwhile to call for things like global abolition of WMD, the Global Human Rights Index, and positive intervention of the UN to prevent wars of secession. I also believe that the Cuts can be ended and a rational economic response to the budget deficit put in place. But I cannot believe that the people will stand up to defend their NHS. Or can I?
The total insanity of Lansley's change can be summed up in a number: £3,000,000,000. Three billion £ooniesmackeroonis is the cost of his upheaval. At a time of financial austerity. This money is going to come from the NHS budget, which will also shrink with inflation, demography and technological progress. So it means poorer services and job losses.
In place of Lansley's folly, the NHS needs continual re-moulding led by coal face workers, who will be encouraged to put forward practical solutions aimed at improving efficiency and efficacy.
If only. If only reason prevailed. But we live in an Alice in Wonderland world of neo-liberal, free market fundamentalist ideology, with all-powerful Government, paretic official Opposition, and a gullible, debate-averse media. The people, the NHS service users, the patients, the satisfied customers, are without information and hope.
Or are they?
The situation is that the normal democratic channels have failed. The only chance of preventing Lansley's folly becoming law is through a series of massive, peaceful demonstrations of peoples' desire to keep the NHS.
These demos should be on a set day, beginning outside the constituency offices of Conservative and LibDem parties. Gather there, have a couple of speeches, then march to the local offices of radio, TV and paper outlets, to make sure that the action gets reported. The chances are that peaceful demonstrations would otherwise go unreported.
In order to make sure that there is no kettling, protesters who are on medications may choose to leave their evening doses at home. This means that the police are obliged by law to release you from the kettle. Be warned that it is not always easy to communicate with the police when in a kettle.
Do not let the fear of trouble keep you from defending the your free health service. We live in a democracy, and we have a fundamental right to be able to assemble peacefully on the streets to press our MPs to represent our wishes.
If you have a relative or friend in the police, or if you are in the police service yourself, please, please join the protest to save the NHS. Your presence is worth 10 of anyone else, because you can appeal directly for calm.
In addition to public protests, we also need widespread acts of peaceful, non threatening civil disobedience in support of the NHS.
Such as the General Tea Break.
So I have just woken from my long sleep of despair at the impending demise of the NHS, and ask myself, Is it possible, just possible, that patients will stand up for their free health service?
Links
The Unite union is making a good start.
The NHS needs another immense top down bureaucratic Lansley reform like it needs a hole in the head drilled with a hand held brace using a blunt 1"auger and no anaesthetic.
As an NHS GP, I view Lansleys NHS changes with sullen resignation. I learned in the 90s from an experienced BMA leader that each and every NHS reform is another ratchet notch in the gradual privatisation of the NHS. It is like a frog in pan of water over a flame - the temperature is increasing so slowly that the frog makes no effort to escape.
In essence, the GPs will be obliged to give contracts either to private corporations or to NHS institutions. That is where the privatisation is creeping in.
How can we mobilise the people of Britain to stand up for the NHS? Will they write to their MPs? Would that have any real effect? Will they join demonstrations? If so, will the notorious interaction between provoking agents and police chiefs result in kettling and violence? If not, if the demonstrations are peaceful, will they be reported by the media?
I feel powerless and hopeless in this situation. Which is odd, because I believe that it is possible and worthwhile to call for things like global abolition of WMD, the Global Human Rights Index, and positive intervention of the UN to prevent wars of secession. I also believe that the Cuts can be ended and a rational economic response to the budget deficit put in place. But I cannot believe that the people will stand up to defend their NHS. Or can I?
The total insanity of Lansley's change can be summed up in a number: £3,000,000,000. Three billion £ooniesmackeroonis is the cost of his upheaval. At a time of financial austerity. This money is going to come from the NHS budget, which will also shrink with inflation, demography and technological progress. So it means poorer services and job losses.
In place of Lansley's folly, the NHS needs continual re-moulding led by coal face workers, who will be encouraged to put forward practical solutions aimed at improving efficiency and efficacy.
If only. If only reason prevailed. But we live in an Alice in Wonderland world of neo-liberal, free market fundamentalist ideology, with all-powerful Government, paretic official Opposition, and a gullible, debate-averse media. The people, the NHS service users, the patients, the satisfied customers, are without information and hope.
Or are they?
The situation is that the normal democratic channels have failed. The only chance of preventing Lansley's folly becoming law is through a series of massive, peaceful demonstrations of peoples' desire to keep the NHS.
These demos should be on a set day, beginning outside the constituency offices of Conservative and LibDem parties. Gather there, have a couple of speeches, then march to the local offices of radio, TV and paper outlets, to make sure that the action gets reported. The chances are that peaceful demonstrations would otherwise go unreported.
In order to make sure that there is no kettling, protesters who are on medications may choose to leave their evening doses at home. This means that the police are obliged by law to release you from the kettle. Be warned that it is not always easy to communicate with the police when in a kettle.
Do not let the fear of trouble keep you from defending the your free health service. We live in a democracy, and we have a fundamental right to be able to assemble peacefully on the streets to press our MPs to represent our wishes.
If you have a relative or friend in the police, or if you are in the police service yourself, please, please join the protest to save the NHS. Your presence is worth 10 of anyone else, because you can appeal directly for calm.
In addition to public protests, we also need widespread acts of peaceful, non threatening civil disobedience in support of the NHS.
Such as the General Tea Break.
So I have just woken from my long sleep of despair at the impending demise of the NHS, and ask myself, Is it possible, just possible, that patients will stand up for their free health service?
Links
The Unite union is making a good start.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Cervarix vaccine death: was it anaphylaxis? If not, what?
I am not satisfied with the news reports on the tragic death of Natalie Morton after receiving the Cervarix vaccination.
They are saying that she had a "serious underlying health condition". What was it? This is not idle curiosity, but a vital bit of information that anyone who might be called upon to administer Cervarix should know about, so that they do not give it to anyone who has the same condition.
Until positive information is put in the public arena, I will continue to suspect that poor Natalie died of anaphylactic shock, which is a known risk with any vaccination.
The side effect report for Cervarix, which can be downloaded from here, include 409 allergic reactions (out of a total of 1.4 million doses given), of which 10 were anaphylactic reactions, and one was anaphylactic shock.
The way to avoid anaphylactic problems is for the vaccinated persons to wait around for 20 minutes within reach of the anaphylaxis pack, which basically consists of an injection of adrenaline.
409 out of 1.4 million is not a lot, and it remains the case that despite all the side effects, it is still worth using Cervarix because it will save a lot of lives as well as a lot of problems with genital herpes.
But Government must be transparent about the cause of Natalie's death. Was it anaphylaxis? If not, what was the reason? Clamming up and telling us not to worry will not do. We must be given the facts, because witholding facts leads to imaginings.
They are saying that she had a "serious underlying health condition". What was it? This is not idle curiosity, but a vital bit of information that anyone who might be called upon to administer Cervarix should know about, so that they do not give it to anyone who has the same condition.
Until positive information is put in the public arena, I will continue to suspect that poor Natalie died of anaphylactic shock, which is a known risk with any vaccination.
The side effect report for Cervarix, which can be downloaded from here, include 409 allergic reactions (out of a total of 1.4 million doses given), of which 10 were anaphylactic reactions, and one was anaphylactic shock.
The way to avoid anaphylactic problems is for the vaccinated persons to wait around for 20 minutes within reach of the anaphylaxis pack, which basically consists of an injection of adrenaline.
409 out of 1.4 million is not a lot, and it remains the case that despite all the side effects, it is still worth using Cervarix because it will save a lot of lives as well as a lot of problems with genital herpes.
But Government must be transparent about the cause of Natalie's death. Was it anaphylaxis? If not, what was the reason? Clamming up and telling us not to worry will not do. We must be given the facts, because witholding facts leads to imaginings.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Obesity, Euphemisms, civil service.
I see that Sir Liam Donaldson has bumped into objections over the term obesity. It is thought to be unacceptably and inappropriately value laden.
Etymology of Obese:
Latin obesus, past participle of assumed obedere "eat until overweight".
Declension: Oboe, Obese, Obit, Obama, O'Bartis, Obunt.
Fer goodness' sake! This is a diversion of effort from a real health problem. It is euphemisationism: changing the word in an attempt to make a problem go away by magic.
Look at how many changes have happened to the humble bog: toilet, lavatory, little boy's room, cloakroom, house of easement, call it what you will, it is still a bog, and it is still a smelly place if you go in too soon after someone else has used it. That's life: food smells nice, poo doesn't. Get used to it.
The real problem of obesity has to be addressed in all its aspects: not just the quality and quantity of food, but also through exercise, which takes us right through to transport policies. If a reasonable fraction were to be taken from the road building programme and channeled to footways and cycle paths, with more cycle training programmes, we could become a happier, healthier nation. Now is the ideal time to do this, as people cannot afford to drive cars anyway.
But will they?
The trouble with committees is that they always seem to arrive at the lowest and "safest" level of intervention. Someone said that the highest ambition in life for a Civil Servant is to have a quiet flop. I do not mean a flop in a sun-lounger, because they are hard working people, but they are constitutionally averse to anything radical. They are also unduly affected by business interests. So their interest is business as usual. Any Minister who comes along will have her plans and ideas listened to, then characterised as "brave", which kills them. If the Civil Service cocks up, their Minister resigns, and they get a fresh new one to mould to their way of thinking.
Which is a case of Moral Hazard.
Clive Ponting, the Civil Servant who was sacked over leaking material relating to the Belgrano scandal, said we are very badly governed. I wonder what Clive is up to these days? I see he has retired, and is only 61. We need more Clive Pontings in the Civil Service. He wasn't obese.
Etymology of Obese:
Latin obesus, past participle of assumed obedere "eat until overweight".
Declension: Oboe, Obese, Obit, Obama, O'Bartis, Obunt.
Fer goodness' sake! This is a diversion of effort from a real health problem. It is euphemisationism: changing the word in an attempt to make a problem go away by magic.
Look at how many changes have happened to the humble bog: toilet, lavatory, little boy's room, cloakroom, house of easement, call it what you will, it is still a bog, and it is still a smelly place if you go in too soon after someone else has used it. That's life: food smells nice, poo doesn't. Get used to it.
The real problem of obesity has to be addressed in all its aspects: not just the quality and quantity of food, but also through exercise, which takes us right through to transport policies. If a reasonable fraction were to be taken from the road building programme and channeled to footways and cycle paths, with more cycle training programmes, we could become a happier, healthier nation. Now is the ideal time to do this, as people cannot afford to drive cars anyway.
But will they?
The trouble with committees is that they always seem to arrive at the lowest and "safest" level of intervention. Someone said that the highest ambition in life for a Civil Servant is to have a quiet flop. I do not mean a flop in a sun-lounger, because they are hard working people, but they are constitutionally averse to anything radical. They are also unduly affected by business interests. So their interest is business as usual. Any Minister who comes along will have her plans and ideas listened to, then characterised as "brave", which kills them. If the Civil Service cocks up, their Minister resigns, and they get a fresh new one to mould to their way of thinking.
Which is a case of Moral Hazard.
Clive Ponting, the Civil Servant who was sacked over leaking material relating to the Belgrano scandal, said we are very badly governed. I wonder what Clive is up to these days? I see he has retired, and is only 61. We need more Clive Pontings in the Civil Service. He wasn't obese.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Dept of Health; concern over BMI of 40
The Guardian shows a very stimulating centrefold on Sept 13. I cannot find it on the web, so if you missed it, you will have to rummage through your muesli-eatig neighbour's recycling pile - just don't make a mess!
It shows at a glance great blobs representing spending sums. The biggest blob is the Dept of Work and Pensions at £137 bn/y, but the second biggest is the Dept of Health at an obese £106 bn. Work and Pensions has an excuse because they have to answer all those letters from grannies who have lost their pension books, but the DoH? Who in their right mind writes to the Dept of Health expecting help?
Looks as if there is scope for a slimming programme at the DoH (pron. "Doh").
My management plan for grossly overweight bureaucracies is a suggestion book. Any workers can write in with their plan for increasing efficiency and saving money. Anything from installing CFLs to proposing more efficient workflows. If it involves axeing their own jobs, they are guaranteed work in a different office. Successful proposals will be rewarded with a proportion of the money saved.
While we are at it, bad managers can be identified by the rates of sick leave (especially for "stress") in the offices in their oversight. As a doctor, if I have someone with work stress sitting in front of me, my first question is, "Are you doing 2 peoples' work?", and the second is, "Is your boss a bastard?". The answers are mostly yes and yes.
It shows at a glance great blobs representing spending sums. The biggest blob is the Dept of Work and Pensions at £137 bn/y, but the second biggest is the Dept of Health at an obese £106 bn. Work and Pensions has an excuse because they have to answer all those letters from grannies who have lost their pension books, but the DoH? Who in their right mind writes to the Dept of Health expecting help?
Looks as if there is scope for a slimming programme at the DoH (pron. "Doh").
My management plan for grossly overweight bureaucracies is a suggestion book. Any workers can write in with their plan for increasing efficiency and saving money. Anything from installing CFLs to proposing more efficient workflows. If it involves axeing their own jobs, they are guaranteed work in a different office. Successful proposals will be rewarded with a proportion of the money saved.
While we are at it, bad managers can be identified by the rates of sick leave (especially for "stress") in the offices in their oversight. As a doctor, if I have someone with work stress sitting in front of me, my first question is, "Are you doing 2 peoples' work?", and the second is, "Is your boss a bastard?". The answers are mostly yes and yes.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
WHO report on Health Inequality: economic detox needed
Prof. Sir Michael Marmot's report on poverty and health: he says that a "toxic combination of bad policies, economics and politics is in large measure responsible for the fact that a majority of people in the world do not enjoy the good health that is biologically possible".
This is not new. Marmot established this point in his seminal research on the Civil Service more than a decade ago, and he has been backed up by work of others, notably Richard Wilkinson. I know, because I dealt with it in my book, Bills of Health back in 1996.
The question is not how much more research do we have to do, but what do we do about it? How do we de-toxify the economic system?
Under the captialist system (and, no, I am not a Marxist, I am a Green*), especially the Anglo-Saxon version, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Why? Because new money is created by giving loans at interest. If you are rich, you can loan out, and your savings grow with interest. If you are poor, you may have to borrow, and you have to pay back the loan and the interest. So we get divergence between the fortunes of the rich and poor.
The benefit system amplifies this problem. If you are on unemployment benefits (JSA), you lose your benefit the moment you find a job. If you are unskilled and on housing benefit, this often means that getting a profitable job is impossible. To its credit, Labour has addressed this with the Working Tax Credit, but it clearly is not actually working, because divergence has increased under Labour, to their eternal shame.
Citizen's (or Basic) Income is a far better, smoother way of breaking the poverty and unemployment traps created by our dysfunctional benefit system. Or if this frightens the horses, then the Green Wage Subsidy is a way of getting there without having to win the "What about the liggers?" argument.
As for the loan interest aspect, Government used to issue the money. It was called seignorage. Now the power of issuing money has been privatised, so that lending institutions issue 97% of the new money (yes, the Bank of England still gets to issue the notes and coins, 3% of the money). The banks and lenders got greedy, and made some stupid loans, leading to the present credit crunch. Clearly there is a need to rein them in, and take back at least some of the power to issue money away from the moneylenders and give it back to the government, on behalf of the people.
This will seem all a bit radical to many, including people in the green party who should know better. Many still think that bankers are kindly old buffers who look after your money, by lending the same money out again to people who need it. This is not the case. Lending institutions CREATE money. In fact the money sloshing around in the world is doubling every 5 years. Anything that has a doubling rate of growth is unsustainable, because it is in exponential growth. If you are unfamiliar with this concept, try folding a sheet of newspaper in half, then half again, and see hoow many times you can do it. Not a lot.
We will hear more of this as the recession deepens and spreads.
*Greens advocate a mixed economic system with a guided market
This is not new. Marmot established this point in his seminal research on the Civil Service more than a decade ago, and he has been backed up by work of others, notably Richard Wilkinson. I know, because I dealt with it in my book, Bills of Health back in 1996.
The question is not how much more research do we have to do, but what do we do about it? How do we de-toxify the economic system?
Under the captialist system (and, no, I am not a Marxist, I am a Green*), especially the Anglo-Saxon version, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Why? Because new money is created by giving loans at interest. If you are rich, you can loan out, and your savings grow with interest. If you are poor, you may have to borrow, and you have to pay back the loan and the interest. So we get divergence between the fortunes of the rich and poor.
The benefit system amplifies this problem. If you are on unemployment benefits (JSA), you lose your benefit the moment you find a job. If you are unskilled and on housing benefit, this often means that getting a profitable job is impossible. To its credit, Labour has addressed this with the Working Tax Credit, but it clearly is not actually working, because divergence has increased under Labour, to their eternal shame.
Citizen's (or Basic) Income is a far better, smoother way of breaking the poverty and unemployment traps created by our dysfunctional benefit system. Or if this frightens the horses, then the Green Wage Subsidy is a way of getting there without having to win the "What about the liggers?" argument.
As for the loan interest aspect, Government used to issue the money. It was called seignorage. Now the power of issuing money has been privatised, so that lending institutions issue 97% of the new money (yes, the Bank of England still gets to issue the notes and coins, 3% of the money). The banks and lenders got greedy, and made some stupid loans, leading to the present credit crunch. Clearly there is a need to rein them in, and take back at least some of the power to issue money away from the moneylenders and give it back to the government, on behalf of the people.
This will seem all a bit radical to many, including people in the green party who should know better. Many still think that bankers are kindly old buffers who look after your money, by lending the same money out again to people who need it. This is not the case. Lending institutions CREATE money. In fact the money sloshing around in the world is doubling every 5 years. Anything that has a doubling rate of growth is unsustainable, because it is in exponential growth. If you are unfamiliar with this concept, try folding a sheet of newspaper in half, then half again, and see hoow many times you can do it. Not a lot.
We will hear more of this as the recession deepens and spreads.
*Greens advocate a mixed economic system with a guided market
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Saving the NHS
Stuart Jefferey, our excellent Green Party Health Speaker, is performing at a meeting in the House of Commons called by the NHS Federation on the 24th July. These are the topics, and my suggested answers:
What are the alternatives to the current market driven solutions in the NHS?
What are the alternatives to the current market driven solutions in the NHS?
- Instead of the current top-down directives, the NHS should model itself on any healthy organism, which is always improving itself, removing dead and dying cells, and generating new cells. In the analogy, we should be facilitating improvements from the coal face, facilitating the process of finding out what works, and applying it painlessly across the board. This means the old suggestion box, where staff that have good practices and suggestions which are taken up and shown to be effective, can be rewarded with a fraction of the savings gained.
How do we retain the core values of the NHS?
- This is an ethos thing. Ask the staff. Measure morale and job satisfaction, find what the high performers have that the others do not have, and try to apply it across the board.
What are the priorities for change?
- BRING THE BLO*DY CLEANING SERVICES BACK INTO THE BLO*DY NHS TEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How will our future health service be funded?
- Either general taxation, with hypothecated taxes on health damaging products and processes, or
- By a version of European systems, or
- By insurance going to local HMOs, in which case we are in the barbaric American system, with the lumpenproletariat effectively without health cover.
What should Gordon Brown do for the NHS in his first 100 days?
- Ask us how we feel about 20 years of continual revolution...
- Terminate PFI with extreme prejudice.
How can the commitment and knowledge of staff be used to drive the strategic
direction of the NHS?
- see 1st para. above
Has our thinking around the NHS become blinkered?
- YES. We cannot see that we are being driven to the American Insurance/HMO system.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Virtuous Circles
people need to be more aware of the positive benefits of greening their lifestyle; for instance
- the reduced use of cars with a switch to walking and cycling would have considerable physical
benefits in terms of physical fitness, reduced levels of obesity, and reduced pollution levels, which can be expected to reduce incidence of episodes of asthma and myocardial infarction - and mental health benefits: exercise is and anti-depressant.
- Fitter people feel less cold, so can turn down the heating.
- eating local, in season, fresh produce would reduce CO2 emissions and improve health.
- organic food is more healthy. There is evidence for this; better levels of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
- the enterprise of responding as a nation to the threat of global heating (instead of viewing ourselves as passive victims of the process) may increase a sense of social cohesion which can be expected to carry benefits in overall health.cf the sense of social solidarity reported during WW11.
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