I sat through the Health Secretaryâs latest statement in disappointed silence. I have heard a few Ministerial statements over the years that have bombed with the Ministers own side as this did, but do not recollect cries of Resign before from the government benches. Sajid Javed needs to ask himself why and start improving the way he does the job.
I guess the impatience with the Secretary of State reflects pent up anger about the way Ministers are constantly telling us the NHS cannot cope despite £64 bn more being spent on health this year than two years ago. Ministers are unable to answer basic questions about plans to recruit more, to increase beds, to improve air filtration in health  settings, to improve infection control, and to  find new treatments.
The PM and the Treasury both want the Health Secretary to get a grip on staffing budgets. They want him to turn the extra  gold for the  NHS into extra  capacity and lower waiting lists. They want the NHS through a combination of vaccines, better treatments and extra capacity to show it can handle a realistic volume  of covid disease going forward.
I did not ask another question as so many of my questions recently have not produced informative answers. My advice to Secretary of State is simple. Go through all the main issues with the CEO of NHS England so you can tell us how the money is being spent, how you will increase capacity, how you will improve  infection control, how you will expand the range of covid treatments, how you will bring down the waiting list anD  then come back to the Commons with a plan to get better results. If the CEO cannot supply you with decent answers you need to consider how this can be brought about.
The public regard you as responsible. The CEO is your chosen person to run the NHS under  your supervision, so make sure you know what is happening and are  able to defend it.
December 13, 2021
Good morning
But the problem is, Sir John is that government keep creating policies that create so called, non-jobs such as Diversity Officers.
Which is both a scandal and an insult. But you did your bit and the questions and suggestions are designed to help and understand and not score cheap political points.
To a certain extent I feel for the Secretary for Health who has to deal with a leviathan / sacred cow of an organisation. A man damned if he does and damned if he does not.
I have always believed that to be an effective manager it is wise to have good quality people under you. People you know and trust that can do the job(s) that they are given. This frees you up to do other things and tackle other areas – ie Sharing the load by delegating. This why I am so scathing about our Civil Service. Not only are they p*** poor, they don’t seem to even realise it.
Throwing money at a problem by governments is simply a political gesture to by time for a government and PM. It rarely achieves the stated goals and the fact that no one knows what to do with this extra cash is simply farcical.
Calling for the Secretary of State to resign is not enough. The man that employed him and his ability to get the right people to do the job must also be called into question.
December 13, 2021
It strikes me that the NHS is running the government, not the other way round. By screaming that they can’t manage, spend more, they’re playing divide and rule with the government and Labour. This place really is becoming the NHS with a country dangling off of it.
December 13, 2021
@Mark B +1 as always spot on!
December 13, 2021
There are two ways to have an effective and efficient health service:
– Administrator run. The administrator have total control over the medics, including hours they work, how time is allocated, patient priority, treatments available, doctor promotions etc etcâ¨, or
– Doctor run. Medics have total control. And accountability for keeping to budget.â¨
Either can work well for patients, staff, and the ultimate founders.â¨Anything else is a dogâs breakfast that guarantees poor service levels, inefficiency, expensive procurement, bad capital investment control, poor career paths and endless bickering.â¨
Itâs a simple test:â¨
â who can authorise an expensive treatment towards the end of the financial year?â¨
– who gets their pay docked and/or fired if the unit exceeds its budget?
â¨If itâs not the same person/group then the system is doomed to fail.
December 13, 2021
Ref. Your last para.
The good people of North Shropshire could make the decision for us on Thursday. If the Tories lose this seat, Bunter will have to look elswhere for his buns. Let it be done quickly and rid us of this embarrassment. We need experienced, competent management NOW.
December 13, 2021
“The public regard you as responsible. The CEO is your chosen person to run the NHS under your supervision, so make sure you know what is happening and are able to defend it.”
I agree with everything Sir John says except to qualify this last. Our mendacious media have convinced all too many people that the NHS is grossly underfunded – just as they have convinced them that some civil servants having drinks or not in their offices during Advent is a greater scandal – a PM toppling scandal, a by election swinging scandal, a legislation scuppering scandal, a NIP affecting scandal – than the fact that many civil servants have not been in their offices for a very long time now.
Back benchers need to spell out to their constituents as Sir John does, just how much money is going to the NHS, and in vivid memorable detail. Until Sir John started to do that, I had no idea.
The one good thing about Javid was his determination to get the country back to work, come what may. I say “was” deliberately.
December 14, 2021
+1
December 13, 2021
âI did not ask another question as so many of my questions recently have not produced informative answers. â
Indeed. Deliberate stonewalling seems to be the approach to requests for clarification. However, we do know that the NHS have recently recruited a large number of highly paid panjandrums. So at least life is good for the bureaucrats.
Even if Javid does go through Sir Johnâs questions with the CEO, he might not like what he hears. Does he come clean about waste and inefficiency or continue with the cover up to protect reputations?
December 14, 2021
Mark B – I do not FEEL for ANY of them.
December 14, 2021
You see, in a proper country with a proper constitution, access to medicine and to education are often constitutional rights for all the people.
Politicians can’t mess with them for party political electoral reasons, and improvements are generally made by building cross-party consensus.
It also means that the news isn’t continually filled with endless proposals for reorganisation, leaving voters in a quandary, and the relevant staff can also get on with their jobs in relative stability.
You aren’t allowed to conceive such a thing as even possible here, thanks to the Establishment-controlled BBC and privately-owned media.
December 14, 2021
What does that mean NHL?….access to health and education?
Sounds like governments duly elected by the majority of the voters on a manifesto placed before those voters gets overruled when they want to alter something by the unelected judges interpretation of your written constitution.
Who is in charge in your scenario?
December 15, 2021
How many times have judges gone against Parliament? Even in November 2016 the judgesâ decision was to guarantee the rights of Parliament, to make sure that the Government (not duly elected by the People, contrary to your assertion) would have to require the consent of Parliament (whose members are actually voted in by the People).
Furthermore the Supreme Court Act 1981 (following the 1701 Act of Settlement) gives both Houses of Parliament the power to petition the Monarch for the removal of a judge from the High Court or the Court of Appeal.
As for the argument that for more than 40 years the UK courts would essentially follow the ECJ, that was the result of multiple votes by MPs and Lords accepting various European legislation as part of the UK belonging to the EEC/EU.
You seem to be utterly confused about how the UK system works. Are people called to vote when one minister (Hancock) is replaced by another one (Javid)? Are they called when a policy is turned on its head because of changing circumstances (decisions taken as part of the Covid saga)? Only Parliament is/might be consulted.
You might be better off thinking a bit before jumping to write comments after some names because you just show how little you seem to be understanding.
December 13, 2021
Good Morning, Sir John,
I thank you and your fellow 68 Tory MPs for pledging to vote against the Prime Minister’s introduction of vaccine passports.
Sadly it looks as though you won’t be supported at all by the Opposition in your stand against this move towards a totalitarian state.
From the Sunday Telegraph:
‘A shadow cabinet source said Labour would likely have voted against the introduction of vaccine passports if they had not also included an option to present a negative Covid test.
‘In his Sunday broadcast, Mr Johnson’s language on vaccine passports changed slightly with the Prime Minister saying that people would need “to show a negative lateral flow test to get into nightclubs and some large events if you’re not double vaccinated”.’
So the Prime Minister changed his language to avoid losing the Opposition’s vote?
I don’t recognise my country any more.
Mary M.
December 13, 2021
+1
It isnât ours any more.
All given away.
Whatâs left?
Housing estates, concrete and crime.
December 13, 2021
Following brexit, no, neither do I.
December 13, 2021
Don’t be silly Martin. Brexit was to be the way to ‘get our country back’.
The reality we have found is that the politicians, the Civil Servants, the Judiciary are all in favour of continuing the downward spiral the common people recognise for what it is. Self interest at the heart of course of this deceit. A majority of the electorate were lead to believe that after Cameron running away, May saying but not doing, Johnson would be different. My God – he is different.
The problem seems to be that the supporting MPs have no spine, they are told to look away, bend over backwards, turn the cheek at the most heinous lies – but they are safe in jobs- for now.
This certainly is not the country of our grandfathers and to a lesser extent our fathers.
I feel ashamed at what the English now say and do, but quite differently to the way you see it.
December 14, 2021
Nah, it was once a modern, reason-based country, which rightly took its place amongst the best of civilised nations.
Now it’s just a load of cack.
December 13, 2021
@Mary M. +1, I second that! Yes Sir John has to be congratulated a 650 seat HoC with just 68 Conservatives the rest being hard core Control Freak Socialists – is not representative of the majority of UK Voters.
Cant we have are Parliament back? cant we have our Conservative Party back? For that matter cant we simply be a proper Democracy?
December 14, 2021
Yeah, please do field candidates like JRM and Christopher Chope in every seat, and see how you get on.
Go on, please do.
December 14, 2021
Yes go on eh.
People you don’t like often get elected NHL
Ever thought your set of views aren’t exactly what the majority would vote for?
December 13, 2021
Apparently you can get odds of 4-1 against Starmer succeeding Johnson as the next Conservative Prime Minister.
December 14, 2021
The bookies favour the LDs for North Shropshire if you fancy a punt.
December 14, 2021
Mid Term by election
December 13, 2021
Agree – I also don’t recognise this country
December 13, 2021
And of course thanks to traitor Gove and his scrapping of EVEL, 117 mostly socialist, authoritarian MPs elected outside of England will now get a vote and also almost certainly support Johnson even though this only applies to England. When are your supine colleagues squatting in English seats going to speak out against this insult to democracy John?
December 13, 2021
Last week, a chronically and acutely sick friend had to undergo a very painful invasive diagnostic procedure in an NHS hospital where she has been a patient for years. She was assured it would be performed under general anaesthetic; it was performed under a local anaesthetic and she was in severe pain afterwards. When she asked for analgesics, she was refused with the excuse that as the unit was a diagnostic one, it could not prescribe for patients. On her return home the same day, the GP similarly refused as she had not yet had a report on the result. Eventually a painkiller was given by a local pharmacist.
Two days later, the patient was informed that she has both bladder and liver cancer, and it would be a good idea for her to get in touch with MacMillan Cancer care. She has now been prescribed morphine for the pain.
It would appear that Covid or no Covid, medical staff are not being trained to deal with complex cases that require a multi-disciplinary approach and smart administration – in my opinion that has little to do with funding and a great deal to do with rotten management, nor is it a recent problem.
December 13, 2021
Who do you expect the NHS to recruit Mr Redwood? Your government axed bursaries for training many British health workers and, with your Brexit, you made it clear foreign health workers were unwanted here. They went home. Who is left? The elderly Brexitists donât want the jobs and arenât qualified anyway.
I myself have recently had an unexpected health problem which has required visits to a specialist, tests, x-rays, scans. But then this has been straightforward as, despite paying vast sums in tax, I have private healthcare. Though I think, at one point, I had to wait 5 whole days for the next bit of treatment.
Imagine being an unwell elderly Brexitist – who voted leave and now canât get the NHS to help as all the foreign staff have all left. My heart bleeds a teeny bit. At least with my private healthcare I can get treatment for a bleeding heart.
December 13, 2021
At the time of the EU referendum it was estimated there were 3m EU citizens in the U.K. the latest estimate is 6m. You should check your facts before you post.
December 13, 2021
Not true. Applying for settled status is not the same as 6m living here. They effectively have been able to extend their right to free movement. Our buddy Agricola did the same. Why wouldnât you – it makes you more employable and gives you more opportunities.
Not that youâd care about employability as you live on pension handouts.
December 14, 2021
……Pensions that have been paid for responsibly through hard work and paying 45+ years of personal tax and National Insurance. Your unpleasant sneering remark towards pensioners is clearly nasty and vindictive, brought on, no doubt, because you erroneously believe they are responsible for Brexit, which you personally deplore!
There are no Pension handouts…these payments are a return on workers’ security investment throughout their lives; as little as it is!
December 14, 2021
My Leave-voting some-time neighbour is whingeing, because he can’t spend as much time in his Spanish bolthole as he once did.
It’s very hard, not to burst out laughing, Andy.
He doesn’t – obviously – speak any Spanish, so might struggle with residency there.
December 14, 2021
Your neighbours (I suspect its a made up story) need some proper legal advice.
Residency in Spain can still be achieved quite easily.
Things like apply, then pay taxes in Spain and have health insurance.
December 13, 2021
10 times more UK students with the appropriate excellent A level results apply to go to med school than get in.
This scandal has been happening for many years.
And way before 2016.
Instead we import poorer nations qualified medical staff much to their irritation.
Ask the BMA why this situation continues young Andy.
December 13, 2021
When I said “their irritation” I was referring to the governments of these overseas nations.
December 13, 2021
but we have many universities providing courses in pop groups, fashion, musicals, and media (how to believably lie).
December 14, 2021
@MT; Just as we have universities providing courses in PPE (Politics, Philosophy & Economics), teaching want-to-be politicos how to lie, you point being what?
December 13, 2021
Ask the government you vote for. They run the country. I donât care if there arenât enough medical staff to treat you. My private healthcare isnât affected.
December 14, 2021
Dodging the point and being insulting at the same time young Andy, as you descend to posting your usual nasty hate filled comments.
Shame on you.
PS
Best of luck if you ever have to use A and E young Andy.
You cant get that sudden accident or injury sorted with your private health cover.
December 13, 2021
10 times more UK students with the appropriate excellent A level results apply to go to med school than get in.
This scandal has been happening for many years.
And way before 2016.
I would imaging thousands of good candidates over the decades year? Why? Surely not to encourage a dependence on EU trained staff?
December 13, 2021
@Andy; Tell us, how did Brexit effect all the non European NHS health care works, many from the Far East? Surely, if anything, the post Brexit restrictions on EU27 nationals entering the UK would have lead to many more opportunities for non EU health cares, give the apparent reluctance of UK nationals to train, or might there be another reason for the shortage of non UK health care staff, a world wide pandemic perhaps…
December 13, 2021
Andy : âWho do you expect the NHS to recruit Mr Redwood? Your government axed bursaries for training many British health workers and, with your Brexit, you made it clear foreign health workers were unwanted here.â
6m EU nationals have applied for settled status, which doesnât give the impression that foreign workers, including health workers, feel they are unwanted here.
The lack of medical training for UK nationals was a policy of EU supporting fifth columnists in control of the NHS and the civil service to make us less independent, reduce the number of skilled UK nationals and at the same time use the money for increasing NHS admin numbers and pay.
December 13, 2021
@Andy
How are the anger management classes going ?
You imply that privatisation of the NHS is the way to go. I’m not sure that I would agree with you although, sadly, if the NHS can not be sorted out then privatisation may well be the only way out.
December 13, 2021
No, no, no. It was people like you said that Brexit meant that people who voted for Brexit didn’t want foreign medical staff here. That, of course, was all in your head. You couldn’t understand that people voted for Brexit because the EU is an autocracy. Ironically, having notionally left the EU, we are now lumbered with an autocratic government here. Oh, well – looks like autocracy is everywhere. It’s a shame – people fought so hard for democracy and people of limited intelligence, such as your good self, could not see that the institution they were so slavishly devoted to wants to remove democratic government in individual countries and take over – with a currency they control and with fiscal integration to come, providing complete control.
So it was
December 13, 2021
Shame your private health care plan doesn’t cover butt hurt or emotional lacrimation.
December 13, 2021
On the contrary, there’s no medical treatment for what afflicts your heart.
December 13, 2021
Private healthcare and wishing that the NHS was run by Tescos management in the private sector. Living in the leafy Home Counties with your NIMBY views on new housing. Weâll make a Tory of you yet Andy !
December 13, 2021
I donât have nimby views on housing and I donât want to privatise the NHS. I will never vote Tory. Brexit was a permanent deal breaker – as it is for a huge number of younger people.
December 14, 2021
@Andy
So …. you don’t want to privatise the NHS…. you wish to retain it for the plebs …. whilst the well off obtain preferential health treatment ?
December 15, 2021
OW, If the âwell offâ pay their private health insurance and then when needed get preferential health treatment, isnât it a proof that the market is working?
Isnât it what a number of Conservative voters would want for health and education?
December 13, 2021
Javed’s the bag carrier, nothing more. The real problem is the thing that appointed him. Indeed, it’s goes much deeper than that
The NHS has become political and parasitic. For the NHS the patient is an inconvenience. For the Tories the NHS is a political issue. That’s wrong. You expose the NHS and the entire public sector to the full force of reform and private sector discipline. Ban all union activity. Force all employees to act to serve the end-user
And to play people off against one another according to jabbed status is something I have never seen before in British politics except regarding the race issue. It seems Johnson enjoys doing the bidding of Labour’s various lobbyists and public sector unions and vested interests who all benefit massively from CV19
Odious, offensive and deeply Anti-British. This is the process started in 1997 and there’s still some way to go
December 13, 2021
Much truth in this. The new CEO of the NHS is rather unimpressive too just like the last one. Why on earth use expensive and much needed GPs merely to do jabs (that almost anyone could do with 30 mins training)? Surely this alone shows gross negligence and incompetence, especially when they are so desperately needed elsewhere.
December 13, 2021
In South Africa no one has died of the new variant not does anyone even need oxygen. So why on earth has Boris gone for this insane over reaction? It will surely do far more harm than good.
December 13, 2021
but there are now reports of a patient dying WITH omicron – not OF it. What amazing timing Mr Johnson.
December 14, 2021
LL – Fear is the Plandemic. The media is the virus. Control of the masses. Unfortunately millions have fallen for it.
December 13, 2021
+1
Patients are definitely an inconvenience. A nuisance who interferes with conversations about holidays past and future.
Very similar with businesses too. They literally donât want oneâs money!
Too busy virtue signalling.
December 13, 2021
Javid has been swallowed by the faceless beauracrats at the NHS.
No one is ultimately responsible so no one is accountable.
GPS getting ÂŁ15 a pop for booster jabs. Volunteers and military doing it for free.
Taxpayers money means it’s there to be wasted.
I’m not saving the NHS, it’s there to save me.
December 13, 2021
Indeed. Like the BBC, NHS needs closing down and start again. Customer is king not bureaucrat/worker.
December 13, 2021
@DOM +1 It is hard to see why any outfit or grouping any where that receives taxpayer funding should be permitted to be un-accountable and not directly responsible to those that pay for the service. It is also a denier of our freedoms that those while representing their taxpayer funded service should be able take a political stance on anything – privately yes, but as part of their taxpayer function NO.
The taxpayer shouldn’t be funding the politics of the unelected at any level.
December 13, 2021
Correct Dom, and in almost all organisations the prevailing attitude generally emanates from the top irrespective of whether it’s a government, a company, a department etc. In recent years it seems unprecedented how many MPs have voted against their own government.
December 13, 2021
As I have said on numerous ocassions on this and many other sites, the management of the NHS is woefully inept. When its leaders ,both political and managerial , cannot tell you how many trusts there are; staff numbers ;what they have spent on any given item or how many of a thing they have ordered you know that you are in trouble.
Imagine a company not knowing its sales, turnover, gross margin , staff numbers , overheads etc .It would be soon out of business
The NHS has stumbled along for too long and now somebody needs to get a grip
December 13, 2021
But this ‘company’ knows they can cry for the need to have the debt written off every year, and the consumers think the business should carry on…
December 13, 2021
Do MPs even vaguely understand the terror of not being able to access healthcare?
Two years of this and masses of money poured into the NHS. And tax rises coming.
Whoever asked for plastic bags so they could be vilified?
Whoever asked for an authoritarian, uncaring health service as their ONLY option, just to have it snatched away during a time of unprecedented pressure?
@isharleystreetclosed?
December 13, 2021
+1 take what you are given (if anything) when finally given it and like it – âjust respect the NHSâ as the foolish Javid likes to order people to do.
December 13, 2021
+1
December 13, 2021
@Everhopeful +1 What ever area it is that receives taxpayer funding, they should at all times be directly accountable and responsible to those that pay. There can be no if’s and but’s – or at least that would be the case if we lived in a Democracy and not a Socialist Dictatorship.
December 13, 2021
+1
Agree100%
December 13, 2021
@EH; Well perhaps had we fixed the NHS when the sun was shining, to coin a phrase (ho-hum…), rather than handing tax cuts to millionaire’s, now that would have been a good use of the money received from selling off so much of the ‘family silver’ over the last 40+ years.
December 13, 2021
I truly thought they doing that during our imprisonment.
Silly me!
December 13, 2021
Yet that old lefty headline ” tax cuts for millionaires” as you say Jerry has resulted in the rich paying a greater amount of tax revenues.
December 14, 2021
@Peter2; “that old lefty headline”
I note you don’t argue the substantive point, just the throw away phrases, and even then are you not being somewhat hypercritical gicen I also used that ‘old hard right headline’ about fixing things whilst the sun is shining, well used by some on the Tory benches against the Labour govt in 2007-8…
December 14, 2021
Tax cuts for millionaires you said Jerry
Wrong.
Check the figures.
Stop waffling.
December 14, 2021
@Peter2; It is you who is wrong, very few becomes a millionaire paying the sort of super tax as there was in the mid 1970s, a tax regime changed after the 1979 general election.
December 14, 2021
You are misled by headline percentage rates Jerry.
Despite modern lower percentage rates the rich pay more tax now than ever before.
Look it up.
December 15, 2021
@Peter2; You need to swat-up up on “Regressive taxes”, as a policy, non so blind as those who choose not to look.
It is you Peter who appears to be the one fixated on headline percentage rates, those on lower incomes tend to pay a greater percentage of that income as tax, due to such tax policies, than those on higher incomes.
December 15, 2021
Irrelevant to the fact that the top few percentages of the richest people now pay more tax than ever before.
Which is what you started this post by saying with your headline of “tax cuts for millionaires”
December 16, 2021
P2; Stop tolling unless you really are suggesting taxation is irrelevant to -err- taxation! Or are you just totally clueless?
December 13, 2021
Sir John, I get a sense of frustration in your text and I can understand why. Please do not, however, give up on asking these important and far-reaching questions. It is shameful that no one in the Minister’s office, the Civil Service or the NHS supremo cannot or will not provide good answers. Not only are the public bering treated with contempt, it now seems as though that content extends to our elected representatives. Shameful, truly shameful.
December 13, 2021
Actually.
Why WERE there shouts for resignation?
Why is anyone suddenly bothered after all the terrible things the government has done?
EVERY job has changed. It is all about diversity and preventing âharmâ and âhate â now.
Thatâs why nothing works any more!
December 13, 2021
The whole system is dysfunctional – how can anyone expect a 100% state owned virtual monopoly with 1.5m employees to be an effective mechanism for providing such an essential service?
Probably no way to change that. But at least letâs get rid of this absurd set up where ministers are theoretically responsible but appear to have no actual power or even knowledge to act. That seems to be delegated to unknown bureaucrats, most of whom have come up from within the system (like the current CEO of NHS England). Outsiders are not welcome, and neither is scrutiny.
December 14, 2021
+1
December 13, 2021
The statement by Javid and Johnson yesterday was an admission of failure.
Failure, after 20 months, of making NHS Management get to the point where it can cope with an infectious, but mild, respiratory disease which so far hasn’t killed a single person in the UK. Despite throwing ÂŁbillions more down the black hole.
And it’s a failure of democracy and our Constitution, since Johnson has effectively governed as a Dictator for the past 20 months and on the rare occasions when Parliament is asked for an opinion on his Orders, he is relying on the Leader of the so-called Opposition to get the result he wants.
Asking Javid questions is pointless; he’s not in charge of anything. As I posted yesterday, the EU has been implementing a process to introduce EU-wide vaccine passports for at least 5 years. And the pro-EU British “Deep State” has decided that we will be part of the scheme. When you see everything in that light, all the ridiculous, hysterical over-reaction starts to make sense.
https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/default/files/vaccination/docs/2019-2022_roadmap_en.pdf
This is about digital ID; monitoring of populations; and a Social Credit-type control.
December 13, 2021
Those on the govt back benches who refuse to accept the need to for greater restrictions to be placed on the ability of this deadly virus to spread are the people who need to consider resigning, not the health Minister!
I note last night, in the PM’s by-election PPB, he effectively told us those currently ‘fully’ vaccinated but without a booster are in effect unvaccinated against the Omicron variant, so I assume only those who have had their booster jabs should now be allowed to access or use a vac-passport.
With so many, now effectively, unvaccinated why haven’t the pubs and clubs not been closed yet, or at least made to only offer pre-booked table service only, along with a capacity limit as before, why have the sporting stadiums not been shut to spectators.
We have been told by the govts own Porton Down labs that the existing vaccines will only be 75% effective against the Omicron variant, assuming a 3rd booster jab, so even if every single eligible person is fully up to date there is still a likelihood that significant numbers of people will swamp the NHS unless greater social/working restrictions are put in place now (in addition to what was announced last week) -and no, at this point that doesn’t mean another “Stay at Home” lock-down, but without action this week or next we might well need to lock-down again by mid January, but then both Christmas and the two troublesome by-elections will have passed. Or am I being to cynical again…
This govt and their backbench need to stop playing politics with peoples health and lives.
December 13, 2021
If there can be a effective vac-passport system, why not an mask-exemption passport (issued by medical practitioners), to be shown when entering any retail or other venue over a given (floor) area or capacity?
December 14, 2021
I note the govt agrees with the logic regarding the validity of vacs-passports pre 3rd (booster) vaccine dose, but has also made it plainly obvious that current policy is being driven by HMT, not DHSC, protect the seasons alcohol excise duty and sales taxes at all costs it seems, hence why pubs have not had to implement capacity limits, table-only service (never mind close), whilst the changes to who can use a vacs-passport will only take effect in January 2022…
December 14, 2021
You say “deadly virus” yet out of 70 million people in the UK only one has sadly died from the new variant.
Do you consider this figure enough to trigger an emergency response?
December 14, 2021
@Peter2; Your comment likely tells us far more about your thought processes than it does anyone or anything else. So in your opinion hundreds, if not thousands, of people have to die first [1] before you would support placing even moderate restrictions on the ability of the a known deadly virus (of which Omicron is a mere variant) to spread among at best a partially immune population?
I have said this before, last year, it is true what some people say, we do need to learn to live with this CV19 virus and any mutations (it is not going to vanish as quickly as it arrived), that doesn’t mean carrying on regardless, it means adjusting how we live our lives, if that means far less air travel so be, if that means the end of the traditional Pub etc. so be.
[1] perhaps not even from the virus its self, but cancer patients who could not access their treatments due to hospitals being full of omicron cases
December 14, 2021
So you are saying….No I’m not saying that Jerry.
Plan B is an overeaction based on one death.
Figures from South Africa already give us a good idea of how mild this variant is.
And the interview with the leading South African expert on TV last night confirmed my views.
PS
Your casual throw away saying so what if we see the end of the traditional pub, a trade that employs many hundreds of thousands of people is an amazing comment.
December 14, 2021
@Petert2; “Plan B is an overeaction based on one death.”
No, it was based on the prediction of hospitals being over run with CV19 (omicron variant) patients. Again you appear to be suggesting you want to see at least over flowing hospitals (again) before acting. Even without any deaths you appear to have not grasped the fact, if hospitals are full of those with CV19 complications it means someone else’s relative might not be getting their cancer treatment, or their hip replaced etc. As I’ve said before, your logic is like not bothering to hand out gas masks in 1939 until after any gas attack had started, not bothering to deliver Anderson shelters until after the blitz started.
“Figures from South Africa already give us a good idea of how mild this variant is.”
Tell that to the relatives of those already in hospital from the Omicron variant, never mind the relatives of the person who has died. But yes, CV19 is less of a problem during the summer months, trouble being the UK is entering winter, next…
“traditional pub, a trade that employs many hundreds of thousands of people”
As did the coal, steel and ship building industries here in the UK for example, that are now no more, as did the factories making typewriters, telex machines, even fax machines, that are no more. Your point was what exactly, that it was wrong to close so many coal mines, so many steel works, that our ship yards etc should have been subsidised by yours and my taxes in the 1980s, like they did in the USSR?…
December 15, 2021
@P2; Further, and in case my earlier reply falls foul of the blue editors pencil;
Businesses (or their models) come and go, always have, always will, if the traditional Pub becomes non viable then I’m sure the landlords or brewery’s will find alternate ways to make money from the premises, such as shifting to only off-sales, becoming a micro-brewery perhaps, or making some type of widget instead of buying from China. Their staff will find new jobs too, I hear there is plenty of full and part time work paying similar wages as hospitality in both agriculture and mail order deliveries for example.
December 13, 2021
Well at least the Government has at last realised that the slow going booster programme needs a kick up the backside, which is certainly a better option than more controls on the population.
As for the NHS, think I have made many points in many posts before on my thoughts about the current organisation.
December 13, 2021
Johnson doing the bidding of the public sector unions while destroying the private sector. This is a new low point for the Tory party
Michie and co are loving this uber level of social control. I bet people like her never thought her dream of total State control could ever be achieved in her own lifetime
Clap, clap and clap for the death of individualism, decency and liberty from the State
They’re not clapping now are they
December 13, 2021
Sir John has now reached a position of despair in his government and leadership.
However, we know that no matter how bad the government gets, no matter how authroritarian, no matter what it does, Sir John will remain a supporting MP and party member.
Consequently we the people will be expected by him to behave ourselves and take its orders.
December 13, 2021
If the Secretary of State is unable to provide answers to reasonable questions it means that the NHS is an out of control spending pit. It must be assumed he has asked the new CEO the same questions and she does not know the answers either. Shovelling extra billions into this money pit is not the answer. Nor is seeking to distract attention or change the issue by crisis talk and doubling down on booster jabs.
December 13, 2021
ÂŁ64 billion extra in one year?
How many extra beds?
How many extra long term ICU beds?
Far fewer procedures carried out.
My daughter has now been waiting 18 months for an oral CONSULTATION (that is just attending the hospital).
Shoddy, shocking and poor. Is this what my additional 1.25% (plus employers 1.25%) will pay for?
At least they will be able to monitor the diversity of the workforce even if they are not sure how many workers there are in total and what they do .
December 13, 2021
More beds means more care staff and I wonder if there are enough fully-trained and fully experienced medical and nursing staff to cope with an expansion. Any money spent on the NHS must be closely controlled to ensure it goes to front-line core services and training for such, and any money already allocated on inessential administrative roles (particularly the absurd such as âdiversityâ) should be withdrawn. Income and expenditure of the NHS must be fully transparent and subject to external, constant and detailed audit.
December 13, 2021
Echoed by the country. The blob appointed a time server to run the NHS. The Secretary of State then showed how powerless/weak he is by rubber stamping it.
I find it extraordinary and a sign of how you always allow politics to take precedence over performance and then look the other way when the inevitable happens or as in this case, it gets so bad, you finally speak out.
December 13, 2021
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, isn’t it clear to you by now that this government doesn’t care about the general health of the population? It cares only about coercing people of all ages to be “vaccinated” against a virus. They have engaged in a process of instilling fear into people and then acting like some third rate salesperson imploring people to take their elixir. There is so much more that could be written about this appalling government’s actions over almost two years but it should be clear that they have been given orders to get people vaccinated and impose vaccine passports which will then be used to control every aspect of people’s lives just like in China.
December 13, 2021
May sound like a broken record, but it’s the truth. Thank you.
December 14, 2021
BT – Spot on and it is all part of the overall plan -control of the masses. The globalist UK Establishment who”run” the show and have done for centuries know the majority of people will comply. Omicron (moronic) a further globalist scare tactic and the people are already freaking out .
The real conspiracy theorists believe their government cares about them, the media would never mislead or lie to them and the pharmaceutical industry that makes billions from sickness wants to cure you.
December 13, 2021
Don’t blame the health secretary for a lack of doctors and nurses. The kids used to squander their evenings watching TV, then videos came into the mix and now it’s computer games. Hardly a seed-bed for the medical profession, or any other of the other skills the country needs for that matter.
The industrial legacy of this country was built on children who did hobbies of an evening. The last few of that generation are now retiring.
December 13, 2021
Pretty obvious that Tories want NHS to fail as prelude to privatisation. Why else would you want to lose a third of staff by introducing mandatory vaccines for NHS workers given current backlog in serious cases? Everything is planned, where did billions of vaccine doses suddenly appear from? Do the maths.
December 13, 2021
The health secretary has plenty to answer for, but the performance from Boris last night on TV must certainly have been a turning point for many.
If his ‘speech’ had held any elements of reality, most would probably have taken in at face value what he said, but the whole thing was composed by psychologists to hit home to those already concerned, while ignoring what was important.
Of course ‘cases’ will rise when a lot more testing is being done — But let’s be clear, a ‘case’ in government terminology means simply someone who has been touched by the virus, 99% of the time without symptoms or just mild ones.
On this basis the PM issues more scare warnings, for a virus variant that to my knowledge has killed nobody!
Countries like France and Australia have been locked down, and worse, with very similar false stories — IS THIS WHERE WE ARE HEADED, TO A FUTURE WHERE FALSIFIED SCIENCE TOTALLY DESTROYS OUR FUTURE?
December 14, 2021
JR – I can understand you get very frustrated at not receiving adequate responses from ministers when you have ask questions — I feel that way too when my comments are approved too late for viewing by others, and the important points I raise get no replies.
December 14, 2021
Unfortunately Bryan, if your comments do not fit the narrative they will not be published. Free Speech!!!!!
December 13, 2021
Poor Mr Javid! He has to deal with reality while you and your Brexit mates demand that he pretends everything would be fine if we just ignored COVID. Bit like Brexit itself as its failure unfolds, you never have and never will address reality, only your ideological fantasies
December 13, 2021
Is the any real surprise – The Secretary of State for Health has no formal authoritative power in the UK. In fact he can at best only be seen to act for England. A purely well paid for figurehead, a token, a virtue signal
UK Health is under the control of the NHS, they (the NHS) are not held accountable or responsible to those they are there to serve or the taxpayer that pays them. They certainly don’t answer to the Health Secretary
December 13, 2021
All the money in the world will not sort out the NHS as the answer is simply that there is not enough staff at all levels. As was said on the Today programme this morning, ‘an intensive care bed is useless unless you have the trained nurse to look after the patient’!
Every single avenue needs to be exploited to increase staff numbers from wherever they can be found. Whether we bribe the recently retired or attract staff from overseas, forget what is or isn’t politically correct and do anything and everything to get the staff numbers up.
December 13, 2021
If shouts of resign mean “Sajid Javed needs to ask himself why and start improving the way he does the job” please can we have them echoing around the ‘Commons the next time Mrs. Patel speaks – or frankly just about any present Cabinet Minister?
The NHS has been in a downward spiral to doom for years: politically the trick will be to be in Opposition when the crash happens. I think Boris can deliver that for you.
December 13, 2021
Stopping the already unacceptably poor access to Cancer diagnosis and treatment, in order to jab people at no risk from Covid, is completely unacceptable to me.
I doubt it is all the politicians fault, the absolutely useless senior layers of the NHS and public sector will have largely come up with this plan.
For me it exposes how absolutely useless our senior ruling classes are, no idea of the basics of probability, or risk mitigation, or how to hold the big picture across multiple complex domains.
We are doomed if we allow this centralist management by dictat approach to continue.
And by the way if they shut the schools again in the new year I think there will be open rebellion on the streets, the people have had enough.
December 14, 2021
Iain – …..our senior ruling class……. The Globalist UK Establishment know exactly what they are doing.
December 13, 2021
I don’t want Sajid Javid to resign. He has only been in that job for six months and the NHS problems go back a long way before his time, so I do not lay much of the blame on him. On the other hand I do want Boris Johnson to resign, but once again that is not because of his questionable performance over the pandemic. As I have said before, I am prepared to cut him and rest of the government and others a lot of slack over that, in these extraordinary circumstances they should not be judged so strictly by the standards which apply during normal times. No, I want him to resign over his crass betrayal of Northern Ireland, which is peculiarly his. It is true that he agreed it with the EU under duress, but he could and should have gone back on that commitment once he had won the 2019 general election, rather than blustering and lying through his teeth about its effects. Instead he was and still is prepared to put the integrity, and peace, of the country at severe risk for the sake of his pathetic little “Canada style” free trade deal with the EU, which is worth maybe a few months of natural growth of the UK economy at the long term trend growth rate. It cannot be allowed to stand, any MPs who call themselves “Conservative and Unionist” should not allow it to stand, and as it is now perfectly clear that Boris Johnson has no intention to do anything significant about it, let alone abrogate it in its entirety, he should go and let somebody else do what is painfully necessary.
December 13, 2021
I’d have put entire failing management teams on notice until they’d proved their worth! There’s clearly a lack of the responsive and creative minds of the inspirational manager and some serious mentoring is needed until they reach the required level of competency……or the exit door to another job where they can excel.
Yet again, words are cynically played with to suit a deceitful, manipulative agenda, whilst the sick are paying with their lives. Infection rates (not illness); hospital admissions with Omicron (not due to) and manufactured distractions (diversity, gender, etc) from a core role that’s beyond limited capabilities. How does the focus on peripheries support front line staff in their overall objective of producing positive outcomes? It doesn’t, it’s done solely to disguise abject management failure.
December 13, 2021
From the MSM (abbreviated by me)
‘PM is said to be close to acquiring the services of a ‘hard man’ to bring rebellious Tory MPs back into line’
From the outside looking in its the so-called Tory rebels that are the real Conservatives, Democrat’s, and it is the spend everything to gain popularity from this Socialist PM shown by his repeated actions isn’t.
December 13, 2021
Sajid Javid’s recent response to Esther Mcvey’s questions on the latest measures was pathetic.
He was clearly either out of his depth/comfort zone or hiding something.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boEOF3B4XGg
December 13, 2021
Perhaps the Health Secretary could ask the Head of each trust to write a blog post each about how they are coping this Winter instead of briefing in secret to the Guardian ‘The Secret NHS Trust Boss’. Something we can all read about our local trust without them hiding behind anonymity, they have whistleblower protection.
Tell us what are the plans for our emergency care, what % of their staff are working this December. How many A&E patients are they expecting to deal with what % of their total trust population is that?
I wonder if there is a system in place like foster care for children, where people will foster an elderly patient who needs general care with the district nurse visiting for medical needs. For people without relatives who can care for them.
This secret NHS chief is worried, they ask themselves: “Do you hold an intensive care bed for someone with an aneurysm that could kill them at any minute, or bring in someone whoâs just arrived through A&E and needs surgery? ” !!!!
“Weâre struggling to get enough healthcare assistants.” Can’t this secret healthcare boss increase the number of training places on the ward? Student nursing staff, males and females, who can take care of general needs and shadow senior nurses to help to do the running around on longer training programs more vocational – why did things change?
This article ends “And there are no quick answers.” There won’t be if they’ve given up, we are relying on these people to tell the government what the answers are, they’ve had the money!…. “A lot of staff are saying âIâm not going back into Covid wardsâ. So thatâs going to be tough.”
December 13, 2021
I thought the shout of resign should be directed at Michael Masi, the F1 Race ‘Decider’.
The nonsense of F1 has managed to outdo our Government.
December 13, 2021
Correction – the EUFA organisation has trumped (sorry about that expression) VAR, F1 stewarding AND the government! Marvellous.
What next I wonder…..Tory MPs voting ‘no confidence ‘ in its leader?
Pigs might fly.
December 13, 2021
“Find new treatments”
There’s no need to find “New” treatments – just stop the deliberate demonising of Ivermectin, and make it readily available. Using it has to led to dramatic improvements in parts of India, Brazil & Japan. When you’ve contracted a virus the correct action is to begin immediate treatment with appropriate anti-viral drugs, NOT a so called “Vaccine”…
December 14, 2021
Dave Ward – I replied to your comment in full agreement and also added some additional comments but of course it was not published as it did not fit the narrative.
Free speech! truth!
December 15, 2021
1. Not anti-viral, anti-parasitic
2. âMeta-analysis of randomized trials of Ivermectin to treat SARS-CoV-2 Infectionâ, 06/07/2021, A.Hill et al., Open Forum Infect Dis., doi:10.1093/ofid/ofab358
â Ivermectin for preventing and treating Covid-19â, 28/07/2021, M.Popp et al., Cochrane Database Syst. Rev., doi:10.1002/14651858.CD015017.pub2
Both studies that independently review multiple (14) studies in India, Iran, Peru, Germany, ⌠conclude that the effect of ivermectin is at best marginal.
DW, PC: if you have other/better information, provide the references, please.
December 13, 2021
I still don’t get it. Sajid Javid studied Economics and Politics and had a successful career in banking. Amanda Pritchard studied Modern History; between them, they are supposed to be able to run
an organisation which is very large on an international basis and which is technologically based ie where the senior practitioners have studied science at a very high level for many years. I don’t believe that either of them are not highly motivated, but the pure ignorance of the relevant science coupled with a new infectious disease which is still poorly understood together with pharmaceutical manufacturers whose utterances are beginning to sound more and more like those of snake oil salesmen is bound to leave them floundering.
The days of the gifted amateur are past; we live in a technological world where detailed knowledge is key.
December 13, 2021
The SoS should have received a detailed plan and regular progress reports against that plan from NHS England to show how all the extra money is being spent and how existing funding is being better targetted so that at any time he can answer questions of MPs like JR who bother to try to understand what the NHS needs to do towards meeting its obligation to provide monopoly healthcare. In particular, the SoS needs to know why the NHS needs so many managers with no useful qualifications in so many different structures when, for patients, healthcare is provided at the local level by GPs and Healthcare Trusts.
December 13, 2021
Sitting “in disappointed silence” hits the spot Sir John on so many topics ever since TV was introduced to Parliament. Your Fighting bureaucratic inertia and swimming against the tide in shark-infested waters for common sense is truly commendable. Please keep persevering. Thanks.
December 13, 2021
Perhaps he’d made them feel guilty by obeying orders to plunge the country into chaos and kill thousands of people by inducing hospitals and doctors not to treat anyone for fear of catching COVID, simply to deflect attention from the PM’s lying and laughing at the suckers he’d duped a year ago.
People can put up with a lot of things, but laughing at them is not one of them. Your fool of a leader has committed a cardinal sin and will pay for it. Unless he is replaced soon the Tories can kiss goodbye to the next GE.
December 13, 2021
Good question this morning. Where is the vaccines minister. You would of thought that at such an important time, she would be prominent?
Maybe her disastrous showing on the TV the other evening gives us a clue. You appoint these people with what looks like zero ability/experience to do these big jobs and then seem surprised when they fail.
December 13, 2021
Dear Mr Javed
After nearly two years, we have grown tired of being asked to save the NHS ….. when the NHS has taken vast sums of our money and should be saving us.
Also, we do not like lockdown or other rules applied to us by a bunch of people who will not suffer financially by the application of those rules. They have no skin in the game.
Yours sincerely
December 13, 2021
Thank you Sir J, support is falling away for this Government as they continue to underperform and self inflict. This is borne out by recent polls. The question is, what will be done about it?
Re The Health topic particularly, the NHS (non-Covid part) performance is part of the problem and you hve nailed the issue of accountability, responsibility and budgetary control. Also I really do support your concern regarding airborne filtration, there’s none (to my knowledge) in my local hospital or local clinics, yet there is UV filtration in my dental practice (non-NHS). I too cannot fathom why this hasn’t been rolled out firstly in Covid wards, then the rest in priority.
IMVHO if the electricity grid supply goes off in any major way this winter, the government will not recover.
I noted we used 14% interconnectors supply yesterday…. this gives Macron a big lever to threaten us.
December 13, 2021
âMinisters are unable to answer basic questions about plans to recruit more, to increase beds, to improve air filtration in health settings, to improve infection control, and to find new treatments.â
It is clear that our elected representatives, Parliamentary MPs and then the Government, are no longer in control.
This applies not only to failures at the NHS, but also to the exponential increases in illegal immigration overseen by the Home Office and to the catastrophic effects on the economy of implementing BEISâs net zero strategy.
The heads of institutions such as the NHS, the various civil service departments and quangos should be the people who should be answering the questions from MPs and the MSM and not hidden away in select committee meetings virtually no-one views.
We also need answers to far more basic questions. The Government should ask each NHS Trust to publish a completed spreadsheet with the headings Job Title/Number of Personnel/Medical Qualification/Salary and to include management consultancy and any other employment tricks these Trusts may be using.
December 13, 2021
Can anybody enlighten me to which hospital is treating the omicron patient, and if they were admitted as a direct result of omicron
December 13, 2021
And what prior vulnerabilities were known?
December 14, 2021
still waiting for an answer…..if the multiple deaths are happening -as suggested, then it should be reported with facts, date admitted, vulnerabilites, reason for admission, date and Hospital of the death.
December 14, 2021
Still waiting
December 13, 2021
The PM goes on TV telling people to get their booster. When they try to do this they are told there are no appointments available. Why extend it to the younger age group if the capacity isnât there?
December 13, 2021
Christine: “Why extend it to the younger age group if the capacity isnât there?”
Why extend it to the younger age group?
They are not significantly at risk, and if it’s a matter of transmission of COVID/OMICRON/WHATEVER strain they’ve concocted today, Omicron seems to be the mildest strain yet. So if there was anytime to get a dose of it, recover and gain natural immunity ( that thing that has served everyone very well up until 2019 ) this would probably be the time.
The COVID-19 vaccines are leaky and don’t confir imunity. That much is essentially proven.
——-
By the way Mr Redwood. Allegra Stratton resigned as a result of an offence that took place in 2019/2020. If it was warranted resigning a year after the event, it warranted resigning at the time. She has been working and receiving tax payers money under false pretence.
What measures will the administration you represent take to recover the salary paid to Stratton for the last year?
December 13, 2021
And now we see the polls when people have finally realised BS is no substitute for honesty and competence.
December 13, 2021
Just about sums it up,
Claire Fox
@Fox_Claire
“Other appointments will be postponed”. Easy to say as a casual aside. But I’m afraid as always there’ a no risk- benefit analysis (not available now; never available). So this doesn’t tell us potential misery, fear, delayed diagnosis & (for some) acute pain, that this will cost
December 13, 2021
You are spot on, Sir John, once again – but surely the same could be said of every other minister? Take Kwarteng, for instance, and his disastrous energy policies, or Sunak and his self-defeating increases in taxation, or Patel and her failure to control the Channel invasion, or even Frost and his failure to do anything at all to solve the NI Protocol or the EU’s rape of our fishing waters.
Now some people may argue that these are not the policies of the ministers themselves but of the prime minister, and this may be true, but surely a self-respecting and honourable minister would resign if he (or she) was forced to pursue a policy they did not agree with? So either these ministers (and the rest of the cabinet) are in full agreement and support of the disastrous path the government is going down or they are mercenary and unprincipled careerists. Either way, I have no confidence that any of them would make a good prime minister, so who can be trusted to take over from Boris Johnson?
December 13, 2021
The NHS displays all the qualities of a dystopian 1970’s nationalised industry, where economies of scale via mass production have been applied. The problem here is that mass production involves outcomes which are more or less identical, whereas every patient is different and requires tailor made solutions.
As has already been said, patients are a nuisance rather than “the customer” whose interests should come first. The NHS has 1.2 million employees. The starting point for reform is to assess the roles of all those not directly involved with patient care to establish whether their roles can be justified.
The concept of “free at the point of delivery” was always flawed, and based on the premise that if everyone had access to better health care, the demands on the NHS would reduce. We need politicians with the courage to accept that the current health care model in the UK does not work and that a Continental-style compulsory insurance-based system would improve patient care.
December 14, 2021
+100
December 13, 2021
On the topic of health policy, I see Boris Johnson has sunk to a new low and is now trying to play politics with someone’s death, in order to spin this to his advantage. He said today: “Sadly yes, Omicron is producing hospitalisations and sadly at least one patient has been confirmed to have died with Omicron. So I think the idea that this is somehow a milder version of the virus, I think that’s something we need to set on one side and just recognise the sheer pace at which it accelerates through the population.” But died WITH is NOT the same as died FROM. He clearly chose his words very carefully in order to try to scare the public and justify his anti-democratic politics. Absolutely shameful.
December 13, 2021
No doubt most of the extra money will go on bureaucracy and waste. Morale is low and stress very high amongst front line staff and many are leaving so the hiring of dozens of ÂŁ270k Managers will not go down well. Iâve said it before but one way of incentivising new recruits would be to axe their student loans (and the disgraceful 6% interest) on condition they work for the NHS for a minimum number of years. After all, your Government writes off 78% of student debt, many of whom have done worthless degrees yet bizarrely it hammers the ones the country needs. Junior Doctors are doing 60/70 hour weeks often with no lunch break and no paid overtime. Compare this with greedy MPs who pay themselves ÂŁ20k extra a year for sitting on select committees when their ÂŁ82k a year main job obviously isnât enough for them. I know who Iâd rather see taxpayers money go to and it isnât our greedy MPs.
Javid is out of his depth but then heâs the sort of calibrate Johnson tends to surround himself with. Obviously thinks it makes him look more competent than he is but heâs fooling no-one. Starmer is ahead in the polls at the moment through nothing Labour are doing but everything Johnson and this useless Government are doing.
December 13, 2021
The Nationalised Health System is a Marxist construct. It’s doomed to fail. Chucking money at it has been proved to fail time and time again. It cannot even train enough new medics (which was not the case before nationalisation). Answer? De-nationalise it.
December 13, 2021
Boris Johnson has slumped a startling 13 points behind Sir Keir Starmer on who would make the best prime minister, an exclusive poll for the Standard reveals. It is the first time a Labour leader has been ahead as âmost capableâ PM in an Ipsos MORI survey since Gordon Brown was clashing with David Cameron in January 2008.
Sir Keir is now rated the best on this question by 44 per cent to 31 per cent. He and Mr Johnson were neck-and-neck in September.
Just 24 hours before a Commons vote on new Covid restrictions, which could see the PMâs authority hit by a major revolt, the poll found his satisfaction rating among the public collapsing to its lowest since he entered No10 in July 2019.
December 13, 2021
Not good news Sir John, so don’t publish?
December 14, 2021
Thank you for publishing, not good news.
I hope a new poll will be taken after today’s voting.
December 13, 2021
There are two obvious causes of the crisis in hospital A&E departments which should be tackled first.
1. The inability to get a GP appointment causing many people to go straight to A&E when their ailment could be addressed nearer home
2. The problems in social care preventing elderly and frail people from being discharged and freeing up beds.
The GP appointment problem is only getting worse and will eventually trip up the government in a big way if not fixed.
December 13, 2021
Frankly, I don’t think is Sajid Javed is up to the job of being Health Secretary. Allowing the ambulance service to become incapacitated in waiting to unload patients in hospitals is unacceptable when he should be ordering hospitals to accept all arrivals in specially adapted (one could use canteen areas or outpatient waiting areas or somewhere) areas where doctors should be assessing patients and dealing with the most urgent cases. If hospital administrators can’t or won’t organise this they should be sacked without compensation as incompetent. Keeping ambulances on the road so they can deliver the seriously ill to hospitals quickly and so save lives must be the overriding priority for both hospitals and the Health Secretary. Personally I think in this crisis Dr. Liam Fox should be asked to become Health Secretary as he knows a lot about the NHS to begin with and he seems more able than others to put things into perspective.
December 13, 2021
Managing an organisation with 1.5 million staff – effectively – is impossible. We should simply decide what proportion of our taxes/GDP we want to spend on the NHS and set the budget at that figure.
As long as people in the NHS know that if they constantly cry ‘we need more money’, everyone will excuse poor performance and, more money will appear.
I feel sorry for the medical staff, most of whom work hard and care. But the structure they work under makes everything difficult.
I hate to say it but outsourcing is part of the answer. Routine stuff like hernias, hip replacements, knee replacements etc. should be outsourced with no apology made. Make the point that it is more cost effective to outsource than it is to do things in-house. The NHS has far too many adminstrators and managers.
December 13, 2021
It is not possible for the Health Secretary to get anywhere near discovering the details of the Health budget. A previous life in forensic accounting would help. Even the Treasury can only split the ÂŁ219 billion spend into three Accounts. Medical Services ÂŁ185 bn; Medical Research ÂŁ2.4 bn and Central and Other Health Services ÂŁ32 bn. It has yet to discover any COFOG level 2 detail of spending.
I don’t know if the NHS uses ” internal invoicing” deep down into the organisation. It exposes who is invoicing what to whom and why. Particularly if an internal 1% VAT is applied to each invoice that gets back to the CFO. It shows how budget monies are being transacted within the organisation.
December 14, 2021
In short, it is an administrative problem.
December 13, 2021
Trouble with managing England in any circumstance is that by itself it is greatly overpopulated – countries like Scotland, Wales, NI and even Ireland are at a better size of population to plan organise and manage.
England would be better off if it were split into fedrral regions rather than trying to control everything from the centre
December 13, 2021
I wrote a comment this morning, which appears to have been blocked. Given what Javid said in the Commons today about the need for 12 – 15 to be vaccinated to be able to go on holiday,why? What evidence does he use to support that statement? As far as I can hear he provided none. So how and in what way was my comment lacking the evidence that he is only there to continue where Hancock left off, when the evidence keeps coming out of his mouth?
Pity, you are good politician, but lack courage to stand up for the electorate when it really matters.
December 13, 2021
It’s not just the Health Secretary, Sir John. The one thing at which the entire government and almost all the rest around the World have proven adept is what, in the military, we call spreading alarm and despondency.
Unfortunately the few voices of calm have been drowned out by tumult from the media and politicians.
Î Î
December 13, 2021
Mr Redwood, are you ashamed to be associated with this administration?
Because you should be!
December 14, 2021
Mr Redwood is not associated with this Administration. He is on the back benches!
December 13, 2021
One thing he also said is that 200,000 people per day are currently being infected by Omicron, which is not even the dominant variant yet. He knows this from modelling apparently. What is worrying is that he can spout such an absurdly and obviously wrong estimate and not question it.
December 14, 2021
Ror G – The population have had the BS on this particular subject thrown at them for the last 2 years and unfortunately most have believed it.
December 13, 2021
Talking of holding people to account, when will the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Post Office face criminal charges for extensive fraud, harassment, deceit and conspiracy throughout the Horizon fiasco?
December 14, 2021
The top brass in this country – unlike in others – almost never, ever, face criminal charges.
Not for anything.
December 13, 2021
A friend of mine, an Italian student in the UK, has damaged his knee and needs an urgent operation. He is entitled to NHS treatment, and has been told that he can have the operation early in 2023. So he has gone back to Italy. He was given an MRI scan the day after he arrived and has been told he can have the operation in Italy between Christmas and new year. And yet Boris Johnson tells us that the NHS is the envy of the world!
December 14, 2021
Dear Sir John,
Please stand firm tomorrow, and if you are given time, Speak for England.
December 14, 2021
I have a suspicion the majority of career politicians will not stand firm.
December 14, 2021
My advice is even simpler:
Get rid of the nasty Stalinist monopoly that is the NHS.
Insist on recruiment of more nurses and isolate COVID-19 patients in Nightingale hospitals.
Introduce modest charges for GP visits, non-emergency attendance at A&E, and hospital annual charges.
Put social care under the control of local authorities and allow them to fund it properly.
December 14, 2021
It seems that the government ministers like the perks of government, but appear to believe the position involves delivering speeches and sound bites while someone else does the work.
One problem I have seen is a desire to always been seen as virtuous, this means a minister must take a bicycle to work even if a lackey drives a car with his luggage, it means our local NHS pays ÂŁ9 a ream for “green” paper rather then 50p a ream, the list goes on.
I see Boris and Priti both prevaricate often wasting billions of money for fear of not looking kind, this really needs to stop. We never remembered when Winston, Gladstone or Joseph Chamberlain were kind, we just remember when they did the right thing or made a bad decision. In fact one of the most memorable “virtuous” decisions was Neville with peace in our time – not a good look!
December 14, 2021
Wow! The Tory Parliamentary Party is coming alive again!
Not one second too soon.
But Thank God!
December 14, 2021
Sir John,
I would be grateful if you could ask the Health Secretary how he imagines that sacking 100,000 staff on April 1st (if they refuse to be vaccinated with experimental gene therapies that are only in-use under an Emergency Use Authorisation) is going to ‘help with the under-staffing problem.
As I am sure you know, the studies into the phase-3 trials are not due for publication until Q1 2023 at the earliest (for Pfizer-BioNtech). Should not everybody – not just healthcare professionals – sensibly wait until those studies are properly evaluated, before making a final decision on whether they wish to OPT to be vaccinated?
December 14, 2021
You take the Blue Pill, the story ends, you wake up in bed and believe whatever you want to believe.
You take the Red Pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
And the rabbit hole goes VERY ,VERY DEEP.
WAKE UP PEOPLE
December 15, 2021
This is good advice but there are other important issues. For example is it sensible to enact a “law” that requires the NHS to sack around 10 to 20% of its workforce come April 2022? And is it sensible to roll out a booster programme at the expense of all other health issues the NHS is supposed to be catching up on, whilst effectively cutting off booster vaccination to vulnerable groups. Particularly when reputable doctors are indicating that two vaccines are sufficient to deal with omicron.
I would imagine another factor will be the lies. How can a Health Minister stand in the Commons claiming that he will never support mandatory vaccines, whist introducing a measure that requires mandatory vaccines?