The Department of Health and Social Care has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (90313):
Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase the number of beds in NHS England hospitals. (90313)
Tabled on: 09 December 2021
Answer:
Edward Argar:
National Health Service bed capacity is not fixed and can be flexible to meet changes in demand.
The seasonal flu and COVID-19 booster vaccination programmes also aim to reduce the level of hospital admissions and increase bed capacity. We have also provided an additional ÂŁ478 million to the NHS for the rest of this year to continue the enhanced hospital discharge programme, to maximise the number of available beds.
The answer was submitted on 15 Dec 2021 at 16:16.
Let me begin by repeating my gratitude to all those NHS staff who worked beyond the call of duty and took risks themselves to look after all too many covid patients. My criticisms of senior management below do not take anything away from their covid work done.
The issue I have been raising for a long time is why does the NHS run down the number of beds or fail to increase them? This government has made available very large extra amounts of money both to improve the mainstream NHS and to respond to the special challenge of covid 19. As we found during past periods of accelerated funding increases as well there has been a marked reluctance to ever use this to expand bed capacity. Staff numbers have expanded, but maybe not enough of the specialists needed for crucial clinical and nursing teams to staff additional beds. There has been plenty of expansion of the overhead, with more regulatory and policy quangos.
When the NHS was persuaded to spend substantial sums on setting up and equipping the Nightingales they obtained around 5000 extra beds with space to expand that further. I urged them to make these the covid hospitals, isolating patients who would otherwise go to the District Generals who could get on with their regular work. Of course the NHS had to re purpose medical staff so more worked on covid all the time it was raging and had to recruit as many extra as possible for temporary or more permanent work. Instead the NHS insisted on putting covid patients mainly into the District General hospitals. This created cross infection problems and reduced the capacity of the NHS to carry on with non covid work. The NHS then shut the Nightingales as soon as possible for a total cost of around £500 m. As you can see from a recent Parliamentary answer I received we are not allowed to know where all those beds and equipment have gone to. Surely they should be put to good use?
The non answer to the two questions above shows a strong reluctance to even countenance expanding the number of beds. Why? When money is available it is a good time to do so.
December 18, 2021
We don’t have enough doctors and nurses, and we can’t get them either. This is the direct result of your Brexit, which has had workers from the EU leaving this isolationist country in droves
Reply Millions have stayed. The NHS failed to expand beds all the time we were in the EU
December 18, 2021
@Gary Megson; As our host admits in his own reply to you, the problems existed long before Brexit, in my opinion long before many in the Tory party fell out of love with Jacques Delors vision for the the EEC back in 1988, ask yourself why we even needed to rely on overseas doctors and nurses?
December 18, 2021
Exactly, Jerry: the right question! Apart from anything else, we have trained up lots of doctors of nurses over the years, who have then gone to work abroad for higher salaries. We should do as some countries do and require medical students on subsidised courses to practise in Britain for e.g. the first 5 yrs. after graduation.
December 18, 2021
Actually the British state has constrained the number of locals allowed to enter medical and nursing training for decades, presumably intentionally to cause shortages of staff and to give an excuse for the mass import of foreign workers. It’s part of the blobs strategy to force shortages of skills so that the immigration floodgates can be kept open. Sensible politicians would allow any locals who want to enter training to do so, and let the market sort things out.
December 19, 2021
@Iain gill; So costs to the tax payer had no part in such decisions, savings that helped to allow taxes to be cut, it being after all cheaper to employ the already trained migrant labour than train and then employ our own nationals?
December 20, 2021
jerry,
costs of the approach adopted by the blob, if the accounting is done correctly, and accounts for the negative impact of large amount of immigration, would be far worse the way they have organised things. it only looks cheaper if you ignore multiple things from the calculation.
December 18, 2021
Gary, you may be unaware of the fact that many nursing staff were ‘imported’ from Ireland during the 1980s because insufficient numbers of school-leavers were being encouraged to join the profession. There have also been problems for decades with the insufficient numbers of medical school places, which continues to this day, and not all that was caused by government but by the reluctance of the Royal Medical Colleges to endorse or encourage an increase.
December 18, 2021
ah….back in the day when nurses were employed to do the basics of care, rather than requiring a level of education to degree level to change bedding, take temperatures, blood pressure, distribute meals and check drinking water, assisting toileting.
December 18, 2021
@MT; You’re getting awfully confused between nurses and ward orderlies, nurses have always required medical training [1] (unlike orderlies), what has changed over the years is how much medical training nurses have needed, as medical science advances so does the level of required training.
[1] well at least since the day Florence Nightingale first influenced thinking
December 18, 2021
wrong. When I was a lot younger (!) I had a couple of skirmishes with NHS hospital treatment and dated a couple of the nurses – – trust me they were not trained…. in fact in one I showed a nurse how to spoon feed an old boy without making him choke or dribble it out.
December 18, 2021
What has changed is the requirement for nurses to have a degree.
December 18, 2021
We have loads of GPs being wasted doing vaccine jabs that almost anyone could do with just 30 mins of instruction! We could easily train more medical people & quickly too. It is absurd that is take 10+ years to train people – just train them for the job speciality they will actually do and not every medical aspect under the sun. Train just say cataract or hip/knee surgeons or say skin specialists directly in perhaps two years not 10+. If we had fare competition between private healthcare and the NHS (and not the rigged system we have) we would have far more money in medicine and far more medical staff and beds and ECMO facilities too). Rather than the dire virtual communist, monopoly, rationed and delayed NHS we have to suffer.
They can consult other specialist if and when needed. Get someone like Toyota to advise how to run efficient health factories!
December 18, 2021
The best way forwards is for tax cuts and for the NHS to start charging all who can afford to pay. Give tax breaks for people (and companies) taking private medical cover (with this perhaps paying the NHS too if used), abolish the 12% IPT tax on medical cover. Abolish the benefit in kind charge on medical cover too. People on waiting lists should get 50% of the cost if they go privately. A win, win for the NHS and the private system.
December 18, 2021
Thatâs correct, but probably far too sensible to stand a chance of being implemented.
December 19, 2021
There was tax relief on Private medical insurance, Labour removed it, another stonking move by the party of envy which resulted in more elderly people using the NHS.
Whilst the NHS employs even 1 Diversity CoOrdinator on ÂŁ80,000 pa plus perks I donât want to hear them bleat about underfunding.
December 18, 2021
Reply to reply: No there isnât enough doctors and sick of politicians relying on foreigners with their âwe wouldnât have an NHS if if wasnât for themâ. We wouldnât need them if this clueless Government looked after itâs own. Morale is very low on the front line especially amongst Junior Doctors who are expected to work ridiculously long hours often with no break and no such thing as overtime pay. No wonder stress levels are at breaking point and they are leaving the profession. What a waste of all that training and knowledge.
Cant say it often enough and although money isnât the only solution, one way to show them they are appreciated would be to take away the huge debt hanging over them for the first thirty years of their working lives on condition they work for the NHS for a minimum number of years.. If this idiotic out of touch Government can write off 78% of student loans, most of which is for worthless degrees, why canât they write off the debt for those the country desperately needs? Too sensible an idea I know for any politician to consider. Especially when those same politicians received their degrees, worthless or otherwise, totally free.
December 18, 2021
Indeed doctors now likely to leave with circa ÂŁ120K of student debt + 6% interest yet start on under ÂŁ30k after 5 or 6 years of training. Not easy to repay the debt, pay your rent and actually live on that let alone buy a home. Often treated appallingly by the dire NHS too.
December 18, 2021
Gary Megson
Can you not see the injustice of stealing poorer nations’ medical staff ?
Can you not see the injustice of depressing NHS workers’ wages by importing competition for their jobs ?
Can you not see the injustice of saddling our young with university debt for useless English and Arts degrees when they could be getting NHS training ?
No.
You were addicted to cheap labour and *modern* slavery which is why YOU caused Brexit.
December 18, 2021
Correction. The Conservative government failed to expand beds.
December 18, 2021
Which will be a darn sight harder once we go green.
December 18, 2021
And the 6 million who have stayed have put extra strain on all our public services. You can’t have it both ways. Our ever-increasing population is the main problem. Also, why is our Government sacking tens of thousands of staff who don’t want to have the vaccine when all the data shows the vaccinated can still catch and transmit the virus? If it was a question of staff shortages they wouldn’t be doing this as they must think they can replace them, right, otherwise it would be sheer madness.
December 18, 2021
Mandating health workers is being done in the US and Australia as well as here, and perhaps elsewhere. And as here they are leaving the profession in their droves.
Question⊠how come many anglophile countries are doing the same, ie mandating vaccines, after the staff have worked through the most âdangerousâ time, when Covid was new and an unknown and there were no vaccines?
And second, what do these doctors, nurses, radiographers, care home workers know, that so many are refusing the jab?
December 18, 2021
We are now talking about vaccination every four months.
So now – every twelve weeks – my wife and I have jabs and endure splitting headaches for two days so that anti-vaxxers can stay out of hospital ???
Typical bloody Tories – punish those doing the right thing rather than those who don’t.
Prime Minister Whitty “You took one jab ? You took TWO ??? Well here.. HAVE SOME MORE !” jab jab jab jab…
December 18, 2021
16 weeks
December 18, 2021
Gary Megson :
6m EU nationals have applied for residence in the UK so to say they have âleft in drovesâ is nonsense.
But more importantly, do you not think it is immoral to not fund the training of sufficient of our own nationals to become doctors and nurses and instead rely on importing these people from other countries, many of whom are poorer than us and in more need of medical staff than we are?
December 18, 2021
not just applied, but status granted.
December 18, 2021
Six and a half million EU citizens registered to take up permanent residence. We were originally told there were only a million, then, after the referendum “the three million” made themselves known. What is the real figure? Maybe more than six and half million.
December 18, 2021
Indeed. I sprained my ankle earlier. Brexit eh?
December 18, 2021
Good Morning,
I believe written questions are passed to the civil servants to answer, from the appropriate department. From your recent ‘answers’ from ministers. Sir J., it would appear you’ve been put on the ‘do not answer’ list. The only way to change this minset is to make a change at the top.
From yesterdays interview by Sky of the PM, you can learn all you need to know about Bunters character defects, why he is not competent to be in a position of responsibility let alone PM, and why, Sir J. you will not get answers so long as he’s in office.
December 18, 2021
Getting the PM’s job, then a new girlfriend/wife in early old age and then starting (yet) another family in early old age, in the biggest crisis to befall this country in our lifetime, at the start of his premiership (while lecturing the rest of us on zero carbon) says all you need to know about this utter loonatic.
On his advice we are now taking jabs at a rate of one every four months and gets us to throttle our own businesses and communities by our own hands.
Yet he keeps the one omicron victim’s details a state secret and keeps us in the dark about deaths within 28 days of vaccination.
What magic does this unkempt wizard have over women and supposedly intelligent people ?
December 18, 2021
Peter Wood
Totally on the money Peter but the answers to all the problems could already be sitting on the back benches. It is not just the hea honcho needs changing its the whole bleeding team and that can take in the top layers of the civil service. When the stampede for the PM replacement takes off I hope by that time there is a group that has got together with all the life experiences, knowledge and total belief and pride in this country pull together and not talk about it just do it. The way the government has operated over the last decades is lamentable. We need good safe pairs of hands to steady the ship. There can be no hiding places it’s the line in the sand moment for the real conservative politicians to cross over the line. Enough is enough we cannot carry on with this situation normal mentality that it will be alright in the end.
December 18, 2021
Indeed – but replaced by whom. The alternatives look even worse to me. We certainly need someone prepared to ditch net zero, HS2, the climate change act, deregulate hugely and reduce taxes & the state sector to about 50% of current levels. But no chance of this, given most Tory MPs are essentially dire LibDims at best.
December 18, 2021
Sunak.
And then the Tories could claim to be the only party that appointed two women PMs and one BAME.
December 18, 2021
Good moring.
Try doing that say, in a court of law or to your boss in the private sector.
Do they not know that people like our kind host (ie MP’s) are there to serve their constituents, many of whom pay for the NHS, and they deserve to know answers to basic questions regarding how their money is spent.
This is the problem with State Monopolies – Because they know you cannot go anywhere else they can treat you appallingly. The contempt is real !
It is clear from the non answer that there are no plans to expand the number of beds. If there were, it would say so.
Half a billion more wasted.
December 18, 2021
@Mark B; “Try doing that say, in a court of law or to your boss in the private sector.”
Indeed, if only the Speaker had the same power to make the PM and Ministers give proper and full answers at the dispatch box as Judges have in the Crown Courts.
Careful of what you ask for…
December 18, 2021
Having dealt with the NHS in various capacities over decades, I can only say that for some utterly unfathomable reason, there is all too frequently a complete and frustrating lack of the ability to think things through and act logically, from ward to Chief Executive level, in both medicine and administration.
There is a pervasive mentality of “it’s how we’ve always done things/I’m not having new-fangled ideas on my territory/I won’t admit someone/somewhere else can do things better”.
The Nightingale debacle is simply the latest and most eye-wateringly expensive example to date.
December 18, 2021
@SM; The health service is operated by rules set by (currently) the DHSC, if there are failings within the service then there are also failing with oversight, ultimately the SoS at DHSC, if not Cabinet and the PM.
December 18, 2021
Number of beds cut by nearly 50% over the past 30 years.
Loads of hospitals closed, the land put into developersâ pockets.
Many GP surgeries gone too.
And all the time more and more and more new patients.
Care in the community reducing beds. Old people no longer cared for in geriatric wards also reducing overall number of beds.
I remember my parentâs working lives being destroyed by mad ânew broomsâ.
Hasnât it all gone too far to be retrieved?
December 18, 2021
How do they get away with such nonsense. Surely there must be some mechanisms to force sensible answers from the department heads.
I see wind was contributing 1.8% yesterday at peak . Boris wants to double the windmills which would give us 3.6%.
Drax gets ÂŁ4billion annually to increase CO2 production and we import coal from Kazakhstan. What a mess.
Frost to capitulate over the NiP and to the French over fishing.
You deserved the kicking you got on Thursday.
December 18, 2021
If the UK was an African type dictatorship, we would have had a military Coup d’Ă©tat by now, with added sustainable / renewable Marshal Law. Sadly, they don’t yet happen in Lord Hailsham type elective dictatorships. Also, the UK military is too busy being inoculators. đ
December 18, 2021
Which bit of my post on the Nord Stream gas pipes you deleted, couldn’t you handle? Was it my mention of upsetting President Biden?
December 19, 2021
acorn
Naughty, naughty !
đ
December 18, 2021
Indeed. The highest taxation in 70 years, the boat service and 4 * Hotels for them continues whilst our war veterans sleep on the streets. Lots of eco lunacy based on unproven science. This Government is a mess with a leader in a mid life crisis who cant comb his own hair or private life.
December 18, 2021
The non replies to your questions suggest contempt for parliament by an NHS that is a law unto itself. I now read that the forecast of 200,000 Omicron infections per day has now been dropped. Having ramped up the fear factor we are told it has been reduced because of “behavioural changes”. Well that was quick, even quicker than the exponential spread of this infection which, we were solemnly informed, would double every 1.9 days. Still there is nothing like creating panic on the streets to keep the peasants in their place.
December 18, 2021
The NHS only ever worked on the âsocial creditâ of post war Britain.
It was run along military lines.
Once (1970s/80s) unsuitable people were recruited and promoted for reasons other than their ability to do the job, the whole shebang was lost.
Contracting out was also a nasty trick.
Cost saving has been the constant mantra which has led to fewer and fewer beds.
Yet political correctness has allowed money wasting in so many areas.
And in a Marxist outfit like the NHS, only a few identity groups get decent treatment. Others are treated very badly.
December 18, 2021
Re JRâs uber sensible advice to NHS.
Sounds as if they WANTED to be âoverwhelmedâ?
Now why would that be?
December 18, 2021
Every winter pre-Covid – when the Conservatives were in government – the Marxists in the NHS and BBC would be praying that they could report the NHS being overwhelmed.
As a result of Covid these Britphobes have now discovered a more powerful weapon and that is to demand lockdowns – even when unnecessary – in order to destroy the whole economy.
December 18, 2021
+1
Exactly.
For years Marxists have planned and plotted, never dreaming that the soppy tories would let them stomp all over the country.
And yesâŠthe front page of lefty press winter after winterâŠ.NHS canât cope!!
December 18, 2021
Smoke and mirrors.
Draconian Police Bill being sneaked through under cover of Omicron.
No more protests âŠ.ever?
December 18, 2021
No more protests EH, only awkward questions from our host, unless Bunter the Liberal Conservative can find a way of stopping them too!
December 18, 2021
+1
December 18, 2021
This week I attended Hinchingbrooke hospital for an assessment of a heart condition.One nurse carried out an ecg and another one took my blood pressure.The consultant agreed to make an appointment at Papworth hospital in the new year to see if I needed a stent. I came away well pleased at how well the staff were coping.
I expected my appointment to be cancelled due to the new COVID variant.
Are we an exception here in Cambridgeshire?
Is the media feeding us with misinformation?
December 18, 2021
You were lucky, Bob – believe me, that is not happening at an NHS Trust in Essex as we write.
December 18, 2021
No, the NHS is feeding the media with misinformation. Open your eyes. The NHS is now the master of propaganda and hysterical nonsense. They’ve learned their craft
December 18, 2021
+1 The Tories are terrified of destroying the NHS so the NHS is going to destroy the country and then itself when the economy implodes.
Nottingham Lad Himself doesn’t seem to think that the economy matters – typical cart-before-horse Lefty thinking. Sometimes this is genuinely naive but with intelligent Lefties it is usually mischievous… lose all the votes ? Get all the power back by squealing “Save the NHS !”
December 18, 2021
the NHS and the Civil Service are in a battle to see who wins the ‘Biggest Employer’ title.
December 18, 2021
As BW commented below, I agree, you were lucky.
I had been waiting for a hip replacement for over 2 years, but recently I received a pre-op assessment appointment, which I attended with the implication my operation may actually happen. Ha, sadly this before Johnson’s booster announcement! I received a letter yesterday apologizing it won’t happen for the foreseeable future and asking if I still needed the hip replacement?
Johnson announced he wanted a ‘booster drive’ starting straight away, so it would appear orthopaedic surgeons and other consultants have been seconded onto the experimental gene therapy jab programme and sod the growing waiting list of operations and treatment delays. Whilst I may be in pain to the point it wakes me in the night and find increasingly difficult to walk, it is not life threatening, as it is for those with cancer and heart problems etc.
One is left wondering not only about Johnson’s bizarre mindset, but also will he deny treatment to those who have been pressured to have and subsequently develop heart problems as a result of this jab as well?
December 19, 2021
Glad to hear it Bob and hope everything goes alright.
December 18, 2021
I voted for Brexit because I was sick of the contempt shown to Britain by the unelected Brussels polit bureau. I never dreamed that the contempt shown to the British people by their own Parliament would be worse.
December 18, 2021
@BW; Not our own Parliament, just a contempt within govt and those taking the whip, there are plenty of opposition MP’s who feel just as frustrated as you do.
How come Germany, France, Spain can all have a better public health service than the UK, some having a far greater level of bureaucracy too yet are still far more efficient at treating patients?
December 18, 2021
Medical insurance? Various methods of raking in dosh?
Relative most put out to be presented with a credit card machine in a French Drâs surgery!
âFreeâ is not generally a good idea!
December 18, 2021
@EH; Don’t the French operate a system of reimbursement, so whilst initial payment might be made direct to the doctor or pharmacist (by those who fail the means test) the majority of the costs are eventually paid by the State?
The real difference between the UK and some of the European health systems, for example in Spain, is the level of care expected to be provided by the family of the patient, even to the point of supplying food, but then that is second nature within Spanish society. Not that the Spanish health care system would allow someone to go hungry but food will be pretty basic in most cases – this was often one of the main caused for elderly UK expats to return to old blighty well before Brexit was even on the radar!
December 18, 2021
+1
December 18, 2021
Interesting – please give an example, of an expression by a European Union institution or spokesperson of this contempt that you claim that they showed.
December 18, 2021
NLH
Picking up on your point yesterday about expert witnesses in court being given more credibility etc.
Expert court witnesses are meant to provide detailed evidence.
In the case of Whitty et al they suppress all factual detail about omicron victims and give no details whatsoever about vaccine victims and terrorise us with fictional forecasts – which have been shown to be wrong many times.
At their behest you are now taking jabs at a rate of one every four months. The latest jab has increased the frequency over what we were told was efficacious.
Were you expecting this ?
BTW. Masks don’t seen to have slowed the transmission rates. They are being worn incorrectly and the wrong types are being used.
Fitted FFP3s worn tight etc ed
December 18, 2021
I was talking about bikers, Sir John… bikers.
December 18, 2021
He wonât be able to find any examples of contempt. Itâs just in his imagination. Maybe he reads the Daily Express too much.
December 18, 2021
They treated Mr Cameroon with contempt when he tried to get a concession to bring back to help the country to vote Remain.
The EU blew it!
December 18, 2021
No they did not.
His demands were to destroy the basis of the Single Market – patently preposterous.
December 18, 2021
NLH
âNo cherry-pickingâ.
Mrs May treated very badly.
December 18, 2021
Whatever you claim – and you don’t even explain – was AFTER the Leave vote.
What expression of “contempt” by any European Union institution of office was there before then, which could have informed the Leave vote?
December 18, 2021
‘Whatever you claim â and you donât even explain ‘ – – been looking in the mirror again, Martin?
December 18, 2021
Agree totally and despite Sir JRs view not blaming Johnson it all stems from the chaos at the top. Cummings got him in one. Weak, agrees anything then runs away thinking a cheery wave will suffice. His whole life has been one of personal indulgence.
The Tory Manifesto was purely so he could get elected. Once that happened, it was another set of promises for him to break.
We are now selling out on NI, I see the pro EU Treasury have their fingerprints on this one, as the Little Elf said nothing much apart from BS is happening across Government. Again Johnson preferring flight instead of fight.
And surprise surprise Javedâs infection number projection rate has proved to be wrong. Finally anyone believe no decision has been taken about post Christmas lockdown. Of course not. They know they are in trouble and havenât the balls to do it earlier.
It is a swamp. North Staffs was the first step to try and drain it.
December 18, 2021
Nig L,
Boris Johnson was elected because he was not Mrs. May and he promised to get Brexit done.
Not being Mrs. May was a plus point that only had a very limited shelf life – and, despite claims to the contrary, he has not got Brexit done.
However the other contenders for Prime Minister are also a complete shower. Anyway, the Conservative Party are slow remove people. Look how long May lasted.
Boris will also have globalists pulling strings behind the scenes to place favourable pieces in the media. Not that they would not replace him, but they have to show they put some effort into supporting one of their own.
Boris will try to continue the globalist stuff – COP26, Covid alarmism, High spending – while trying not to further alienate voters.
December 18, 2021
They certainly are a complete shower.Just look at the current frontrunner – Liz Truss….Imelda Marcos posing as QEIII!
December 19, 2021
But who signed us up to the EEC / EU in the first place and who kept on lying, and signing more and more treatines giving away more and more power ?
The same parliament.
December 18, 2021
Could the problems be the management structures that have been put in place by (mostly) Tory govts since 4th May 1979. Perhaps our host needs to look closer to home for his answers, rather than always trying to shift the blame for miss management onto others?
December 18, 2021
If you think the NHS was efficiently-managed before Mrs T’s time, you are gazing through heavily rose-tinted spectacles. There simply weren’t ways of complaining publicly as there are now, and most patients and their carers were more subservient in their acceptance of poor – and sometimes atrocious – behaviour on the part of staff, from top to bottom.
December 18, 2021
@SM; No one has ever suggested that the NHS was perfect before May 1979! Indeed there were, and still are, long standing problems dating back to how the NHS was set up in the late 1940s, contracted in GP’s and Consultants being just two, before early Feb. 1975 there was a will within all of the (three) main political parties to sort the problems out, not use those problems as an excuse to privatize the service via the back door/office.
December 18, 2021
Anyone else noticed how our host always chooses to raise this sort of issue here, were he moderates replies, knowing he has a largely supportive audience what ever he says anyway, when was the last time he wrote an opinion piece for say the Guardian, to be published on their website with open comments allowed?
Reply When they last allowed me to!
December 18, 2021
@JR reply; Fair cop, bad example! đł But I suspect you fully understood what meant.
December 18, 2021
Reply to reply – LOL
I’d say this is a pretty balanced forum. It resembles a bar brawl… pretty much like the Commons used to.
December 18, 2021
He comment on Twitter and elsewhere – no one reads The Guardian anyway other than the BBC and a few of the dafter university students do they?
December 18, 2021
@LL; Point taken! Does anyone know if our host has sought to publish his thoughts with regards the problems faced by the NHS in a publication such as the Nursing Times or BMJ (British Medical Journal)?
December 18, 2021
@ jerry – wheresoever views are published, action upon them depends, clearly, upon the Health Secretary and we can be reasonably confident that all Sir John tells us here has been told to the overwhelmed and underwhelming Mr.Javid.
December 18, 2021
and one of my brothers-in-law. How sad.
December 18, 2021
I have read some very good pieces written by Conservatives in the Guardian.
However, it is quite clear from their content, that they fully understood that the Guardian will not allow their publication to be used as a platform for spreading distortions, half-truths, caricatures, misleading implications, or other crudely propagandist material.
Is that the problem, Sir John?
Reply No, they have not wanted anything from me for some time.
December 18, 2021
reply to reply….they don’t like the brutal truth commentary on the world and politics. Until you start scribbling nonsense you’ll never get 5 bob from the Gruniad.
December 18, 2021
@MT; Much the same as the Daily Maul then…
December 18, 2021
@NLH; Nonsense, the Guardian allow their publication to be used as a platform for spreading distortions, half-truths, caricatures, misleading implications, or other crudely propagandist material on a regular basis as, and when it suits, most notably with regards the lie that CO2 is causing climate change – read a balanced view, sorry, more chance of our host being invited to put the case for capitalism in the Morning Star I suspect!
December 18, 2021
Sadly jerry the claim that CO2 causes climate change is endorsed by our government as promoted by the Met Office which is a government department.
To quote from the Met Office website ‘The evidence is clear: the main cause of climate change is burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal. When burnt, fossil fuels release carbon dioxide into the air, causing the planet to heat up.’ and ‘Overall, human activity is warming our planet’.
There is, disgracefully, therefore no chance of offering any other point of view to this government.
December 19, 2021
Miami – what you complain about is factually true, however the level of damage is miniscule. Just to try to put a reality on the scare information.
December 19, 2021
Micky, the financial damage is already embedded in the system. Electric cars and heat exchange systems will be unaffordable for many and it would appear that hydrogen boilers require a 3/4 inch supply where many households currently only have a 1/2 inch gas supply.
And that comes nowhere near ensuring we have our own supply of energy. The Almighty certainly had a sense of humour when much of the world’s energy supply was put in the hands of despotic regimes.
December 19, 2021
miami : -Although an atheist I still take exception to you blaming the Almighty.
Innocent until proved guilty? As an aside when your time comes and you find yourself in beautiful calm and warm sunshine you can relax, but if you find yourself in a furnace with oil or gas burners going at it, you will know a different being claimed the energy market.
December 18, 2021
For a paper that has to rely on donations to survive… why does it have so much power ???
(The Guardian)
December 18, 2021
Perhaps it should introduce a Page 3?
December 18, 2021
“a platform for spreading distortions, half-truths, caricatures, misleading implications, or other crudely propagandist material.”
A description of the Guardian.
December 18, 2021
The Health and Social Care Act, 2012, (Andrew Lansley) brought a system of considerable complexity and confused accountability, resulting in a vacuum in system leadership at a local as well as national level (âLansleyâs NHS âreformsâ, BMJ, 2012:344:e709, available from bmj.com)
Not long after Jeremy Hunt became HS in September 2012, he said of the fragmentation that Lansleyâs reforms had introduced were âfrankly, completely ridiculousâ (âBreaking with Lansleyâs Actâ, 26/10/2020, health.org.uk) and then tried to patch it following Simon Stevens âFive year forward viewâ and Norman Lambâs view on âintegrated careâ.
I tried unsuccessfully to go back to Sir Johnâs writings on health in the last ten years to check how he had commented on these consecutive reforms, all initiated under a Conservative Government.
I would only have a few questions: does he think that the responsibility for the present messy situation is only with the top management of the NHS? Is there any responsibility to be shared by the successive HSs? How good/bad was the oversight of MPs/Lords on the successive acts and regulations issued to âgovernâ the NHS? Do MPs actually have any insight/experience on what a successful health policy could be? Is the only criterion used by MPs/Lords an economic one? Do they ever look at what is being done in other countries?
Thanks in advance.
December 18, 2021
Whilst the have endless access to money, they will continue as they have always done so.
Unfortunately the majority of the population have this weird concept that the HNS is free, so it will be a very brave government that tries to tackle the problem head on.
You would be better off having a go at the Civil Service first, who seem to have more influence over the way most things are handled than we appreciate. !
December 18, 2021
@alan jutson; No, most people understand fully how the NHS is paid for, the point of debate is whether one believes health care is a right or a privilege. As for your last sentence, our host needs to ‘have a go’ at those who manage the Civil Service, the govt of the day – just as he and his colleagues would were Corbyn/SKS or Swinson/Davey the current PM.
December 18, 2021
Sir John, in their eyes you are only a lowly MP and have no expertise or right to question decisions made by the High Panjandrums of the Notional Health Service.
As far as they are concerned, the money THEY DESERVED will be spent the way they want. And that isn’t on expanding patient services. Their priority is on expanding the Managerial class and their bureaucratic fiefdoms … with the current priority being the expansion of Equality and Diversity monitoring, so they can ensure that they have sufficient numbers of those with “protected characteristics” in the right jobs.
The Notional Health Service is not there to benefit the British people. It’s there to benefit the left-wing Notional Health Service Unions, particularly the BMA, and the Quangocracy.
And has been noted many times in comments on your blog, your Party simply hasn’t got the guts to do anything about it, or the rest of The Blob who are ruining this country.
December 18, 2021
@Donna
The NHS is dedicated to providing jobs for women who wish to return to the workplace after having children. Those who suggest that its fuction is to treat those taxpayers who fall sick are mistaken. That is why the number of beds has been cut by 50% in the last 30 years.
The government should force the NHS to spend the additional funds on more hospitals — with beds, nurses and doctors
December 18, 2021
Recently the prediction was for a very bad flu year and all being encouraged to have their flu vax. Why was no provision made for extra beds for flu victims as this is a regular occurrence, oh sorry, except since Covid, when flu and pneumonia have all but disappeared.
Strangely, the mortality rate for the UK for 2020 was within the normal range, despite Covid. Were flu and pneumonia ‘borrowed’ to bump up Covid figures or is my scepticism running away with me?
December 18, 2021
There was a very interesting guest on Richard Tice’s Talk Radio show last Sunday morning. He ran one of the largest nursing home groups in the country. He said that the number of deaths during the pandemic in his homes hadn’t been above the 5-year average. He was also very upset about having to sack his unvaccinated workers. Having seen myself the way the ONS figures have been deliberately manipulated I worry that there is something much more sinister behind this pandemic. A lot of people have made a lot of money from it all.
December 18, 2021
+1
I too wondered what happened to the seasonal flu etc last year. Did ‘covid’ kill it off? Well, according to the politicians perhaps only for last year, because apparently this year it will be making a comeback and everyone must have a flu jab. Given the reticence to having a 3rd clot shot, the cynic in me wonders, what else will be in the flu jab this year?
December 18, 2021
Answers from bureaucrats are deliberately vague but there are easily found figures on the internet.
According to one statistical site there were 240,000 beds in the UK in 2000 but only 163,000 in 2020. Why the decline with an ageing population ?
In comparison, one of the world’s best health services, Japan, with twice the population of the UK has 7 times as many hospitals and 9 times as many beds. Covid deaths in Japan are around 18,500 in total. Some connection perhaps ?
Their ability to close the country to almost all arrivals obviously helps. They have been practising it for 400 years after all.
December 18, 2021
Because we have a Tory government which cuts hospital beds. Is it really that hard to work out?
December 18, 2021
just like the Labour party did, oh I forget you’d still be in Primary school so wouldn’t remember them.
December 18, 2021
Bed numbers were being reduced under Blair’s regime, just as the very sensible method of providing the public with free help to complain about NHS service problems (the Community Health Council) was destroyed for no stated reason by Alan Milburn.
December 19, 2021
+1
December 18, 2021
None of your questions, which are always pertinent, receive a proper reply. More evidence that this government treats MPs and the public with contempt.
December 18, 2021
Brian,
Very true. Perhaps exposure of the constant stonewalling might help to address the issue?
December 18, 2021
The understaffed, overwhelmed and ‘on the brink of collapse’ NHS POLITICAL narrative is becoming tedious.
The NHS is now run for the benefit of itself. The patient has become an irritant and the Tory government is putty in its hands
The NHS CEO is now more powerful that the British PM. This organisation has become far too cocky but politicians are terrified of appearing to be seen to be criticising it or suggesting reform for fear of a public backlash
There’ll come a time when the NHS will assert its true political power in cahoots with a future Socialist government There”ll be no clapping in the streets then I can assure you
December 18, 2021
My lad is an NHS doctor (he had to demonstrate his lefty-ness to get the job) The other lad (they are identical twins) was not a lefty so didn’t get an NHS course and now works in the private sector progressing treatments for diabetes to clinical trials (medicinal research chemist.)
Whenever the doctor walks in the room I get Alexa to play sorrowful piano music… because that’s what the xxxx BBC does every time the NHS is on TV ! (Why are we getting mood music in BBC news items ?)
The chemist is into Slipnot and this music neutralises the syruppy atmosphere a treat.
December 18, 2021
Seeing as I’ve broken myself economically to produce a doctor and a research chemist I think I’m entitled to use the F word, Sir John.
Seriously. We’d ALL be better off as a family if we’d knocked out a plumber and a grandchild with father anon. That is not a joke.
We’re all scared about where the bloody money is going to come from to get these lads on the housing ladder. Though a few years back I did say my boys weren’t wanted (being white and being boys) but they both turned out so outstandly brilliant academically that they could not be ignored. Top grades at every stages – firsts, top decile, Russel Group… from an area where marital breakdown, social failure and drug abuse was endemic and the whiff of spliffs in the air.
Choose ex cons to tell the Tories how to raise kids in such areas, why don’t you.
A firm but fair Dad at home is key.
December 19, 2021
Well done to you and your wife.
December 18, 2021
They have to reduce the number of beds in order to create the illusion that the NHS is ‘overwhelmed’ and allow their globalist control agenda. Rumours today of a new lockdown to stem the wave of people not dieing from Omicron.
December 18, 2021
The only answer is for this thing to be run like a business with its fixed assets listed, and some decent shareholder representatives such as yourself (and a few of us on here) having a right to quiz the management on where the cash has gone. The minute answers such as these appear from the executive or auditors both must be sent packing. There is just no reason health services can’t be run along these sensible lines, with a consortium of Amazon/Tesco types for input to delivery service, a Google to IT, others for finance, logistics etc. where top people here had input and received a good return for improved output compared to prevailing.
December 18, 2021
At a hospital I know, they almost always postpone elective (planned) orthopaedic procedures in the period just after Christmas into January so that a ward can be converted for caring for more people with emergency respiratory issues. Winter Flu etc. A friend waiting for a hip replacement has told me only yesterday that he has been postponed. So that policy hasnât changed!
Iâd say that the majority of staff, both clinical and non-clinical, are from overseas. If we didnât have them, the hospital wouldnât function (Itâs not Brexit! Itâs been like that for at least the past 10 years.)
We need to find a way to make nursing a more attractive career to British school leavers. How we go about that, I donât know, but there must be something wrong with the current model as weâre so dependent on recruiting overseas staff. I doubt that they could staff the Nightingales without pulling much needed staff from existing hospitals.
December 18, 2021
Re making nursing a more attractive career – the same can be said for a whole range of professions. What is needed is to wean kids off squandering their early years on computer games and undertake activities in the real world.
In engineering, we’re really short on suitable candidates for training. If the kids did hobbies (as children once did in this country) their practical outlook would be so much better.
Computer games should be compared with opium, and we would be really worried if children spent their evenings smoking it.
December 18, 2021
Computer games can be very good, actually. They improve reflexes, concentration, they are a way of socialising, problem solving and group working. It all depends on the game. Both of my boys were into them and have done fantastically well.
I’m sure street crime levels are reduced because of computer games too.
The next level of computerisation is ultra real virtual reality. Transport is going to become less and less vital.
I watched my bro’ in-laws HD4 TV the other day and the New York street scene had me believing that I’d just visited New York. Now scale this to a headset and motion sensor.
December 18, 2021
I agree that we need to train more of our own. Each time I dig out a list of the ‘Top 100 Medical (or Nursing) Schools’ it is the Anglosphere (including countries like Singapore) that dominates the lists. But the NHS seemingly recruits tens of thousands from schools outside of the Top 100.
P.S. How do we attract more into Nursing? Increased pay is one option – though an expensive one. Reducing the provision of state support for those doing Arts degrees, pushing more onto vocational courses, is another. Going back to the previous model for training nurses, a third.
December 18, 2021
Nursing wonât be an attractive career because it isnât an attractive career. Working godawful hours for a pittance of a wage trying to help (mostly) whinging old people.
Erm, no thanks.
December 18, 2021
……trying to help mostly young and overpaid drunken fools who managed to fall on face instead of arse, which would have been more appropriate.
December 18, 2021
Andy,
Guessing your kids are too good to go into the NHS because of old people and not inheriting your intelligence.
Yeh.
Get ’em on that ski resort for a gap yah (year) instead.
December 18, 2021
My pidgin English in that comment is courtesy of my iPhone.
December 18, 2021
When my daughter tried to get on a course she was told they weren’t taking any British students because their fees are capped to 9k. They could easily fill the courses with foreign students and charge them much higher fees. I don’t know if this situation has changed but British students should get preference over foreign students. The Government imposes their nonsense rules but never look at the subsequent consequences of them. My daughter ended up going to work in IT.
December 18, 2021
Nursing appears to be all or nothing ie. a degree only, or all officers and no men. Why not a level that cares for the physical and mental well being of patients while the officers take care of their medical needs. You do not need a degree to be a compassionate fellow human being.
December 18, 2021
@ Tracy Jackson “…make nursing a more attractive career to British school leavers.” – whoa, I would be reluctant to be nursed by someone possessing pass certificates but having never been examined.
December 18, 2021
Unlike the medical staff, the Admin staff at all levels are English people with useless Arts degrees. As to nursing, in the bad old days nurses were recruited at sixteen and trained in a hospital in order to qualify as
SRNs or SENs during which time they were paid. Now nurses undertake degree courses in nursing for which there are fees to be paid. The predictable consequence of this is fewer young women coming forward to train as nurses. This is what happens when you allow Arts graduates to make decisions about matters outside their areas of specialist knowledge such as the life of Mary Seacole.
December 18, 2021
not about real health problems, but anticipating all the falling over pissed idiots, or punched in the mouth disputes.
December 18, 2021
Is anyone ever held accountable for the money wasted by the NHS, such as the Nightingale hospitals ? Who thought they were a good idea without considering whether they could be adequately staffed ?
Perhaps, it is time to bring in managers who have successfully run large companies to ‘reorganise’ the NHS from top down together with advice from senior staff with the emphasis on the welfare of the patients instead of those who can make profit from the organisation.
December 18, 2021
I’ve turned into a cynic and am now expecting Christmas to be cancelled by a grave-faced Boris – even though the graphs haven’t changed shape. I’m also expecting the government to persist in its ludicrous COVID-testing regime, suppressing much of the winter sports trade, until the slopes are green again – because I’m now a cynic.
December 18, 2021
We might now expect details about the single omicron death but they remain a state secret… as we get jabbed at an alarming rate of one every four months in order to save the un-jabbed. *
You don’t have to be an anti-vaxxer to start being alarmed at the rate of vaccinations, surely ?
* This has finally resulted in sickness in my household. Are we expected to make ourselves ill in order to save the unvaxxed three times a year ???
December 18, 2021
Like the sugar tax. This is the Tories punishing people who do the right things because they are too cowardly to take on those who don’t.
December 19, 2021
It will only be cancelled if YOU let it.
Personally I intend to carry on as I have always done.
December 18, 2021
People know omicron is almost harmless and they know lockdowns are very harmful. Both are foreseeable.
People have a vague idea that the PM and many people around him, including doctors, have a legal duty of care.
So doesnât take much to draw the conclusion that Boris is ignoring his duty of care when thousands of people die.
December 18, 2021
Well more young people have died of vaccination and lockdown than old people of omicron ! This is a fact rather than the notional forecasts that Sage present us with.
We are in the unenviable position of hoping that the modelling is both right AND wrong.
December 18, 2021
Well not much is happening in the political world as we enjoy a smooth run up to Christmas and the New Year so lets turn our minds to NHS beds.
The 100 Conservative MPs who voted against Boris’s Covid solutions should gather, decide why conservative policy implementation is in such a woeful state with the electorate, and then invite Boris to hear why, to suggest changes and basically get the train back on the rails. This diary alone, minus the usual suspect trolls, is full of good advice. Get it and Boris sorted, at present you are headed nowhere.
December 18, 2021
Boris gave it away when he decided to become a Dad in old age. I have no problem with that (even though he’s had umpteen previous attempts) but not when A) he’s lecturing two kid households on going green and B) When he’s just taken on the job of running the country with the worst crisis in living memory playing out.
Boris being a fully devoted Dad doting on his wife full time is what I’d prefer him to be. It is the most important job in the world.
No-one is irreplaceable. It is silly to think otherwise…. even with an unkempt wizard’s spell. Ala kazzam !
December 18, 2021
Charles Moore spot on. Boris will be ok if he stops kowtowing to the blob. Fat chance nor any other of his uninspiring Ministers.
December 18, 2021
What utter nonsense!
That reply could have been provided by a BBC journalist, as opposed to someone who is supposed to know what is going on.
That sort of answer requires a complaint to the minister to get a grip on his department, and to supply appropriate details to questions!
Just how does the vaccination programme increase bed capacity, one wonders.
Hospital beds have been greatly reduced over the years, for no good reason – The whole thing stinks of a coordinated effort to ensure that hospitals can never operate effectively.
December 18, 2021
At the same time that the military has been reduced, housing increased and services/infrastructure reduced (EU centric rail systems.)
December 18, 2021
Excepted.
December 18, 2021
Prof. always wrong Ferguson on R4 again this morning, full of what ‘could’ happen, as usual.. Very pleased that the booster programme was going so well. Kerching!!
December 18, 2021
I suggest everybody living within 50 miles of a coast make arrangements to move inland.
The possibility of a tsunami is aways there, which has been demonstrated elsewhere in the world.
December 18, 2021
One of the great mysteries is why none of the mainstream broadcasters will question the lack of beds in the NHS compared with practically every other civilised country. Why they should champion failings in the NHS and not the consumers who pay for the NHS and broadcasting services one way or another is strange. Why have not previous successive Health ministers – notably Jeremy Hunt – made sure that the NHS does increase capacity – or who is really in charge? The broadcasters seem to prefer to spread panic and champion more restrictions without question. The only recent exception to this is GBNews.
December 18, 2021
The UK death rates are so low that the news media have stopped reporting the numbers
What emergency
December 18, 2021
It is very shocking. The South West cases were so low in the first wave that they were barely visible on the Whitty graphs. Then cases from London and the South East were exported to the Bristol Royal Infirmary and in no time Bristol had its very own variant. I.e. it wasn’t The Bristol Variant at all.
December 18, 2021
I know I’m stating the bleedin’ obvious, but when medical people talk of lack of beds they are not referring to horizontal lumpy mattresses but to the staff required to administer the care.
As a previous commenter pointed out, the major problem was the move by the Royal College of Nursing to increase their own status and salaries by making their members degree entry only, a tragic waste of nursing talent.
As usual, the usual remoaners lament our exit from the EU. Having spent a substantial part of my life in NHS hospitals, I have never come across medical staff from EU countries. Brexit is a red herring. EU countries’ superior methods of funding their heath services mean no medics would take a pay cut to work here.
December 18, 2021
The nurses I know personally have now either left the NHS or are working their notice. Many reasons are well known – poor management, random politically driven initiatives that mostly make things worse, lack of proper pay rises, burnout. I also add changes to the pension arrangements starting next spring which are causing some long servers to decide to get out now to protect their positions – whether rightly or wrongly I can’t say but trust is clearly lacking.
So beds are an issue, but staff to run them are the real issue. As we know there never were any staff for the Nightingale hospitals.
December 19, 2021
Are you suggesting short staffing in hospitals? Pull the other its got Christmas bells on.
December 18, 2021
Hospital beds require medical staff to attend to the people in them. There is not enough money for nurses and the ever increasing army of spreadsheet pen pushers. It is that simple.
I would love to see figures for:
Total number of staff.
Total number of doctors.
Total number of nurses.
Total number of non medical staff.
Total number of beds.
Total budget.
for, say, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020
I bed it would show weâve lost beds and gained non medical staff. Day surgery is all the rage these days. I had a hernia operation earlier in the year. I was discharged, filled with a local anaesthetic, 3 hours after the surgery. The next day, when the local wore off, I was in agony. Years ago, you would have been in hospital for several days after an operation. Not any more. To get one night you need open heart surgery as a minimum.
December 18, 2021
Mike, you can see here the answer to your question about the declining number of beds:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/bed-availability-and-occupancy/
It’s not just Tory governments. General and acute NHS beds were cut from 137,000 to 122,000 in the last six years of Blair and Brown.
December 18, 2021
The Daily Mail editorial says today “… Boris’s great gift is that he can speak to all parts of the country at once.”
Well I’d say that’s his greatest fault.
We voted Boris and got Blair but with a ruinous green agenda and the sub-contracting of crisis management to Marxists.
December 18, 2021
His great “gift” is that almost everyone has heard of him, even people who had never voted before, and who know nothing about the recent history of the Tory Party or about much else.
December 19, 2021
some know nothing about the recent history of the other Parties or about much else.
Evidence described on here.
December 18, 2021
âNational Health Service bed capacity is not fixed and can be flexible to meet changes in demand.â
If this is the case why do we have the threats all the time from the Government and Sage that if we donât lockdown the NHS will be overwhelmed?
How is this possible? Does the NHS have spare beds/wards and unemployed clinical staff?
Should the question be:
âWhat are the plans to increase the number of STAFFED beds in NHS England hospitals.?
December 18, 2021
Now we hear that we are to have a circuit breaker in the New Year to save the NHS. So in two years, after pumping billions into the NHS, we have come full circle. Has this Government not learned anything from their by-election loss? People have lost all faith in the Do As I Say, Not As I Do brigade. I travelled by train yesterday and two-thirds werenât wearing a mask even though itâs been mandated. People have had enough and nothing will stop me from seeing my family in the New Year. This Government is continuing full steam to the biggest swing in voting, in the history of democracy in this country. How can your party have squandered such a large parliamentary majority? You havenât delivered on your manifesto promises, you havenât stopped illegal immigration, you have delivered the Brexit we voted for, and you havenât saved the NHS. All you have done is increase taxes, the cost of energy, crippled the NHS, imposed net-zero nonsense, and made peopleâs life a misery. Boris says he models himself on Winston Churchill; well remind him that the British people turned on Winston after the war. He canât live on the Brexit victory and vaccine rollout forever.
December 18, 2021
Another lockdown would be surely a very hard sell. The government would have to come with a new and totally convincing reason for it. Such as ‘Two weeks to flatten the curve’?
December 19, 2021
Not just that, but the opportunity to work with a US President that actually loved this country. We could have had a trade deal by now.
December 19, 2021
Well put, Christine, very nicely expressed
December 18, 2021
Good questions and sensible points. We need answers and sensible actions and not fobbing off.
It is increasingly clear the NHS is grossly mismanaged, and throwing money at seems to have no useful end result – in fact it acts in perverse ways as shown by not using the Nightingale hospitals, and high salaries it advertises for non-jobs.
The government needs to sort it out instead of giving non-answers.
December 18, 2021
It looks like you’re starting to think like us, John. There’s something seriously wrong with the NHS, and it’s got nothing to do with covid.
December 18, 2021
1.8 million employees now. How many on the front line?
December 18, 2021
LOWEST WIND LEVELS FOR 60 YEARS.
Import some oil!
The wind has dropped,
Buy foreign coal!
The windmills have stopped!
Whoever would have thunk it? âïžâïž
December 18, 2021
Government plea ‘Please stop charging your EV to avoid powercuts, turn lights off in unoccupied rooms’.
December 18, 2021
The government doesnât need to plea it can simply turn off you power via the smart meter in your home and the smart box in your car
December 19, 2021
but they always ask nicely…..
December 18, 2021
The governments goal isnât providing cheap secure energy for its people, its goal is to virtue signal to the world how green it isâŠ.and its succeeded, but the world also thinks weâre stupid
December 18, 2021
I think you’re right Glen. I am convinced the reason why BJ has nothing to say about the governments’ energy policy (hmm, oh dear, there doesn’t appear to be one at the moment) is because having made the UK now very dependant on the interconnectors to keep our lights on, he dare not upset France, who over the fishing issue have already threatened to disconnect us. And that is probably why he caved in to France, who now want the EU to take the UK to the ECJ. over the matter.
So, France now has a lot of our fish resources, the ECJ now rules NI (and there was me thinking it is still a part of the UK!) and BJ has nothing to say about the swathes of illegal aliens being helped ashore by us. He also seems happy to back the scheme to turn our faming meadows into wild life hostelry. Some Brexit, huh?
December 18, 2021
Lord Frost resigns…its the end of the end
December 18, 2021
The majority of the UK population, with the notable exception of the civil service and the MSM, believe that individual freedom, meritocracy and competition have been the far better way of developing a nationâs economy than authoritarian Marxistâs total control.
So how come we have ended up with a Marxist monopoly NHS which is now so large that is not answerable to anyone and a monetary black hole?
December 18, 2021
Of course they do, but the wide range of options open to the country is not confined to the ridiculous false binary opposition that you make, as you make over many things.
December 18, 2021
Off topic, I’ve just been listening to a podcast from the Irish broadcaster RTE, and mention was made of the following statement by Lord Frost in a Lords debate on Thursday December 16:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2021-12-16/debates/996CA2C3-EECB-489B-A651-69EA36E304C4/EuropeanUnionBorderControlChecks
“Of course, the degree of pragmatism that we show in future to Irish goods coming to Great Britain will be related to the degree of pragmatism and flexibility that the EU shows in allowing goods to move freely around all parts of the UK.”
I referred to this extraordinary statement previously, and suggested that it was worthy of discussion from several angles; I would say now that the first angle should be to ask who on earth decided that it would be a good idea to allow the EU to control the movement of goods within the UK, and why.
December 18, 2021
“Furious response from DUP over Northern Ireland protocol Lord Dodds says UK âfalling into lineâ with EU and retreating from commitment to trigger article 16”. (Guardian)
The penny is finally dropping for the unionists. The UK is never going to trigger any article of the Northern Ireland Protocol. Boris will quietly implement it to the letter; camouflaged by the hysteria of the pandemic. The US, EU and the Republic, will allow Boris to claim victory, while they bank the cash.
December 18, 2021
Why to we only ever hear what these cranks, who think that the world is just a few thousand years old think?
December 19, 2021
other cranks get published on here.
December 18, 2021
Denis.. first of all I would advise you give up listening to the Irish broadcaster.. they are only looking after their own and the EU
Then secondly I advise stop paying attention to reports about Lord David Frost – we all know he’s just a clone of the other fellow.. I was just going to say clown
Thirdly be reminded the control of movement of goods in Ireland NI was agreed between the UK and the EU and is already signed off and ratified in both Houses and in the EU parliament.. or am I missing something?
December 18, 2021
Denis.. it’s about long term planning.. it’s about when NI rejoins Ireland in the EU.. also all paving the way for the eventual rejoining of Britain within the European project’ but not for another twenty years or more – probably when a lot if the old ERG crowd have died off
December 18, 2021
Sir John, Please ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to request that each NHS Trust publishes 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 18, 2021
Even in the pre-covid ‘good old days’ there were always waiting lists for operations, due to a lack of hospital beds. It is therefore clear that more beds are necessary to provie a faster treatment time and therefore a better service to patients. I really don’t understand the mentality of politicians – such as the current health secretary – who obviously have no interest in making improvements to how the country is run and how the British people are served. Why get elected in the first place if you can’t be bothered to make things better? No wonder politicians are viewed with so much contempt by the public.
December 18, 2021
X-Tory be under no illusion Politicuans get elected in the first instance to make things bettter for themselves
December 18, 2021
I’ll say a couple things which will be rejected by the present system controllers and advocates.
First, my view is that too much money is spent by hospitals on equipment. And there is too much centralisation. I’d like to know more about ambulance management but some other time.
My second is to make a radical suggestion. Let’s say for example as a starter that large villages be supplied with a small building – maybe a house of say four bedrooms, – staffed with an experienced nurse of significant independence and some useful but minimal support. It could deal with many first aid type issues and some health support for example. A district nurse type of cover for each village area, not under GP control and under very limited other control. That is I think vital.
December 19, 2021
Prangwizard, it wouldnât be just one nurse required there are 24 hours per day, seven days per week, someone canât be on-call not working at night whilst sleeping in this home, but able to respond any longer. Then youâd need sick cover, holiday cover, a cook, a cleaner, lunch and break cover.
December 19, 2021
Thats a no! then?
December 18, 2021
UK pop. 68.4 million, 125 deaths today and people are talking about lockdown….has everyone gone insane
December 18, 2021
Glen, there are some psychologists and others who would say to that: ‘Yes, they have, kind of gone insane’. Or rather, the public have been gripped by a mass psychosis orchestrated by behavioural psychologists working for the government’s nudge unit, and opinion formers in the media, all relentlessly drumming fear into people.
On the other hand, the Times ran a YouGov poll yesterday showing over 60% of people reject another lockdown. So maybe the public is finally waking up. We shall see.
December 19, 2021
There are roughly 20-30 deaths on our roads daily – we really should all stop driving….
December 19, 2021
No there aren’t.
There are around five or six.
December 19, 2021
And UK ‘Critical’ stats 11th to 18th DEC reduced- figures between 900 to 875. Very similar for the previous fortnight. I suppose the next fortnight will be of note ( Worldometer )
December 18, 2021
Another variant inspired (ZERO DEATHS) Lockdown to save the NHS. In other words, an extended Xmas holiday for unionised public sector workers backed by the odious and politically driven Marxist SAGE and backed by a Tory PM who genuinely couldn’t give a toss…
How long before Tory MPs will take action against this most destructive and divisive PM? Yes, I know there are Remainer Tory MPs who want him gone but surely there must be at least some common decency left within the Tory party that they can arrive at some reasonable solution
December 18, 2021
Be careful what you wish for, Dom. There’s worse than Johnson, hard though it may be for us to appreciate that at the moment. Look at what’s going in Austria and Germany, or Macron in France. Do you want someone like that here?
December 18, 2021
Xxxxx
We are doomed. Fecking doomed.
We couldn’t possibly have worse than Boris. On taking the top job in old age in a crisis he started a family !!! WTF ???
Now Bo-Jo tells us to get vaxxed every four months in order to save the refusenics and President (tieless) Khan declares an emergency (sure he’s not got a hotline to Sturgeon ?) NO opposite view from the BBC.
I’m pretty sure that Winston Churchill didn’t conduct business like this.
How many deaths within 28 days of vaccine. That should be the next parliamentary question.
December 18, 2021
Or New Zealand, Scotland, or Wales.
December 19, 2021
Do you understand for one moment, that NZ had hardly any lockdown compared with this country?
December 18, 2021
A SAGE ‘scientist’ interviewed on the Daily Sceptic was asked why they don’t model benign scenarios, and he replied that politicians are only interested in scenarios that require decisions to be made!
December 19, 2021
Yes, we could have a “Pollyanna says” spot on every news broadcast, eh?
December 18, 2021
You are being lied to, NHS England has a strategy which is about having fewer inpatient beds, it’s no secret within the NHS. Why are you politicians accepting this kind of nonsense answer. The health secretary really should know what is going on.
December 18, 2021
The problems and neglect of duty are because the NHS is a nasty Stalinist monopoly whose time has gone. It is obvious even now that the Nightingale hospitals should reopen rapidly, staffed by a mixture of fully qualified nurses and auxiliary nurses, who could be trained up in a fortnight in the nuts and bolts of medicines and equipment for treating COVID-19. All COVID-19 patients would then be transferred to Nightingale hospitals. This proposal shoud be made in parliament. To get the Chancellor onside some offsetting reductions in public expenditure should be proposed.
I have run out of sympathy with those who refuse to get vaccinated, putting themselves and others at risk. Yes, they have the right to their freedom and WE have the right not to waste public money or the economic wellbeing of the rest of the population to protect them. Sub-standard care in isolation hospitals is all they deserve. It will make easier to catch up on treating the rest of the population.
The most recent (18/12) COVID-19 summary shows cases up 44.4% week on week, hospital admissions up 8.1% and deaths down 5.9%. The surge in cases has taken place in the past fortnight and the median lag from diagnosis to death is approximately 18 days. Therefore, we should know by the end of the month whether or not the Omicron variant is a paper tiger. I therefore have a proposal which I would like Sir John to follow through on. Parliament should be recalled to sit on Thursday 30th and Friday 31st. If the number of COVID-19 deaths is still declining, all mandatory constraints on the UK should be removed and HM Government’s ‘temporary’ emergency powers should be abolished.
December 18, 2021
Explain how the unjabbed put others at risk when data shows that the jabbed are at least as likely to carry and transmit infection. It is depressing how this fundamental fact is repeated over and over again and the jaboholics still come back and repeat their fallacy.
December 19, 2021
The severity of the impact of the virus tends to be the ‘viral load ‘ transmitted. ie sneeze in the face and it is large, a minor cough from 10m and it will be small. So, the body defends the millions of particles found and can deal with low levels, but attacked by billions can be overwhelmed.
Vaccinated bodies defend with full force and tend to keep the rate of particles able to invade our cells low, but with unvaccinated the particles have a field day producing high levels of available ones to distribute outside. Hence the more infectious the unvaccinated are.
December 18, 2021
I would rejoice in Tony Blair resurfacing as the Labour leader.
I now see that the Tories have been our problem all along.
December 19, 2021
trying to be funnier than the Boy Wonder?
December 19, 2021
”…to continue the enhanced hospital discharge programme…” Is that where people are shoved off home as soon as possible? And aren’t there supposed to be carers there to support them? And won’t there be a shortage of thousands of those, due to the sackings because they wouldn’t take their medicine?
It’s almost as if we’re being played…..