The NHS is in the headlines once again for all the wrong reasons. Here is a personal anecdote. My uncle has been in hospital for the past six weeks while he waits for a heart operation. He can get up and walk around but he needs to be in a ward for monitoring. As you can imagine he is going stir crazy. One reference puts the bed day cost to the NHS as £255, so that is 47 days x …
<div data-boourl=”https://audioboo.fm/boos/1928083-uup-leader-mike-nesbitt-says-poots-must-go-bbcnolan/embed?eid=AQAAAKBnA1OTax0A” ><a href=”https://audioboo.fm/boos/1928083-uup-leader-mike-nesbitt-says-poots-must-go-bbcnolan”>listen to ‘UUP leader Mike Nesbitt says "Poots must go" #BBCNolan’ on Audioboo</a></div><script type=”text/javascript”>(function() { var po = document.createElement(“script”); po.type = “text/javascript”; po.async = true; po.src = “https://d15mj6e6qmt1na.cloudfront.net/assets/embed.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();</script> Not like we haven’t heard it before. Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/
While the Tory Party was preparing to open its 2013 party conference on Sunday with a tribute to Margaret Thatcher – a 10-minute video which received a standing ovation and left many with a tear in their eye – tens of thousands of protestors made their way through streets of Manchester to censure the government’s privatisation plans and their impact on jobs and the quality of health care on a march to #SaveOurNHS. The 50,000 strong rally made its way …
Slowly, almost painfully so, the health reforms are beginning to be revealed. The Compton Review stated that each of the Health and Social Care Trusts was to bring forward proposals for hospital services by June 2012. It is slightly unclear if that was to be the start or the end of this month: however, rumours of proposals have been circulating for some time with Marie Louise Connolly of the BBC providing most of the information: The Royal Victoria Hospital is …
The travails of the NI NHS are back in the news and specifically the problem of A+E: except it is not actually all an A+E problem. The main problem is the long waits in A+E of 12 hours or more. It must be understood that these people are not a waiting initial assessment and treatment but rather are awaiting admission to a ward: their A+E stay and treatment should have already finished. These people are entirely inappropriately being treated in …
After all the recent scandals involving the press one might hope that they are being careful to avoid the assorted pitfalls they fall into with such frequency. More likely, however, than a collective discovery of higher journalistic and editorial standards is that the fear of the current Leveson Inquiry is temporarily keeping them from the more egregious examples of the past. Last year there was the case of Rebecca Leighton the nurse who was accused of murdering patients at Stepping …
Hidden away amongst the discussion of the Compton Review Edwin Poots again mentioned the prospect of reintroducing prescription charges. There is a certain irony in this in that although it was Michael McGimpsey who ended prescription charges the DUP repeatedly claimed this move as one of the successes of devolution and claimed much of the credit for that decision. More recently, however, Poots has repeatedly proposed reintroducing the charges in order to pay for cancer drugs and the like. Part …
Your captions please Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/
The Compton Review into the future of the NHS here in Northern Ireland is due to report next week. There have been a series of articles about it recently: yesterday the BBC mentioned that Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry is likely to be downgraded whilst the Belfast Telegraph has suggested that the Mater in Belfast will lose consultant led maternity services but keep A&E. Amid all the speculation, educated or otherwise, the News Letter’s Ben Lowry, a couple of weeks …
I blogged some months ago about the case of Chris Jefferies who was landlord to Jo Yates. Mr. Jefferies was arrested over Ms. Yates’s murder and then became the target of frenzied media speculation. Essentially it seemed that he was a bit eccentric, had odd hair, was an elderly bachelor and, hence, must be guilty. He was also a leading Liberal Democrat and the local party representatives rapidly distanced themselves from him. After all that Mr. Jefferies was completely innocent …
The first example of consolidation of hospital services has now occurred with the reduction in the opening hours of Lagan Valley’s A+E department. This has produced some comment from the local council but possibly a more measured reaction than might have been expected. The Belfast Telegraph has a typically hysterical headline (not on line) about a bleeding woman sent away from A+E – later discovered to be a lady with a cut finger who was sent to the Royal for …
Now, given I’ve just used Slugger’s bully pulpit to reinforce our Commenting Rules, I am posting this advisedly. It may be a personal attack on the Conservative Secretary of State for Health, but it’s pretty catchy and it has policy content… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
I mentioned the Liberal Democrats and their potentially Faustian Pact with the Tories last week. This weekend saw the Liberal Democrats spring conference. One of the motions carried was about the proposed reforms to the NHS in England. The Liberal Democrat rank and file seem very concerned about effects of the possible changes. The motion carried included this part: Conference welcomes our Coalition Government’s commitment to the founding principles of the NHS: available to all, free at the point of …
‘His position’ in the title would be that of the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser. But, as we know, the scientific illiteracy that prevails in the House of Commons is legendary. And, regardless of their Chief Scientific Adviser’s position, the UK Government have published their response [pdf file] to the Commons Science and Technology Committee’s Report, Evidence Check on Homeopathy. Here are the main paragraphs 4. The Department sets out policy guidance and recommendations, and asks that the local NHS implements that policy in the way that is most …
