The five targets for government

I have always supported the Prime Minister’s five targets. Of course they should curb illegal migration, bring down health waiting lists, cut inflation, boost growth and control public sector borrowing. Being competent at doing these things is an important part ofĀ  reassuring people about the quality of the government. The fact that the Opposition would make some of these things worse with their misguided approaches does not absolve government of the need to deliver.

With others I did raise the question with him of how they would stop all the boats, desirable though the aim was. It was never going to be easy given the criminal persistence of the boat trip organisers. IĀ  have always thought you can get the three economic variables all moving in the right direction at the same time, but you need to reduce tax rates and to control public spending to do so. It was always clear to getĀ  NHS waiting lists down you need to get the full engagement of NHS staff, which isĀ  not helped by strikes and disputes over pay and conditions of employment.

The NHS pledge is important. Too many people complain of the lottery to get a doctors appointment with the system some practices in some parts of the country use with the needĀ  to ring first thing in the morning when everyone else is and then finding the appointments for that day have gone. Too many people wait for months toĀ  get access to hospital appointments for diagnosis or for treatments.

One way to help get the waiting lists for treatment down would be for the NHS to buy in more capacity from the private sector, as it did during covid, to get routine items like cataract removal and knee surgery done in private facilities, providing it free for NHS patients. Specialising and making full use of operating theatre capacities would accelerate productivity and quality, as doing many of the same types of operation improves skills and reducesĀ  handover time between different teams using a general operating theatre.

A thorough review of the needs of those on long waiting lists would also be a good idea , with administrators updating needs and producing plans to maximise capacity to tackle the big areas of delay.

Even better than all such thinking would be a workable plan from the Chief Executive of NHS England with defined targets and methods to cut the waiting lists, that met Ministers’ urgings to cut the list. The Chief Executive should have that as her priority after patient safety, and should have plans to at least get NHS productivity back to where it was in 2019 as quickly as possible.

143 Comments

  1. Lifelogic
    September 17, 2023

    But Sunak is surely failing on all five? Is he even trying to hit these targets, it seems not very much. The only one he might hit (by further recking the economy) is halving the inflation (inflation that he and the BoE clearly caused with his reckless QU, the pointless lockdown and the over tax, borrow, print and waste agenda.

    Over one million failed by the NHS and have to go private it seems (in the Express) highest taxes for 70 years but still they fail to deliver. Yet another back door tax increase. You have to pay four times over to go private. Once in taxes for others, then in tax on the insurance premium you have to earn, then the premium then 12% IPT tax on top of this. Yet another hugely rigged market! At least under Thatcher there was then no IPT tax and income tax and NI relief on buying medical cover with your company scheme or just income tax if bought privately. Still rigged but less so.

    1. Ed M
      September 17, 2023

      In fairness to the NHS though, they have been excellent in my mother’s palliative care (even though she has private health and pays for her own carer etc). Excellent palliative doesn’t just positively affect the dying but also their families. The FAMILIES. I think a lot of people forget that (the psychological impact of dying and death can be huge on a family).

      However, saying that, people need to thank doctors and nurses more often (and not take their care for granted). My experience, also, is that the doctors and nurses have been really great with my mother’s palliative care and that all the problems we’ve come across are not with doctors or nurses but with the administrators / managers (some huge mistakes on their part).

      In other words, the problem with the NHS is the administrators / managers – not the doctors and nurses. And ALSO a lack of hierarchical responsibility (hierarchical responsibility is very much a Conservative idea – which I strongly support).

      1. Lifelogic
        September 17, 2023

        The medical staff are indeed often excellent it is the system that fails, this despite often excellent front line staff.

        An excellent sermon from Richard Tice on Talk Radio just now. On the total insanity of the destruction of the remaining UK steel industry by Sunakā€™s deluded government. Killed on the religious rotating crosses of the mad net zero religion. Electric Arc Furnace steel does not even save CO2 as most of the electricity will come from Gas, Oil, Coal or Wood at Drax anyway. Economic and Environmental lunacy.

        1. MFD
          September 17, 2023

          But you forget LL , Tata Steel will have stripped all technology from British Steel by now so all is left now is for Sunak to destroy the opposition and leave the gate to Britain open for more imports.

          1. iain gill
            September 17, 2023

            the whole steel thing, the further 2 billion of “aid” Rishi gave to India a few days ago, and the ridiculous situation where we are printing silly numbers of visas for Indian nationals to come here, are in my view a complete victory for India, and a complete exposure of how completely useless the British leaders are. significant conflicts of interest for Rishi which does not seem to have had any independent review.

      2. Hope
        September 17, 2023

        Who voted for Sunak or his 5 pledges which he is unilaterally and singly failing on? JR, why would you not force Sunak to deliver 2019 manifesto that he promised to Implement?

        I seem to recall he said he would serve with integrity and implement the 2019 manifesto. On the first we know he has acted in stark contrast and cannot be trusted one jot, N.Ireland, Horizon, tax hikes inflation, debt, and not even trying to implement the manifesto but create his own pledges that no one in his party or nation voted for.

        We know from his record that he has resoundingly failed to even try to implement Brexit but sold our nation out to EU giving them N.Ireland, forcing a border down the Irish Sea and chaining UK to regulatory imprisonment to EU, allowing ECJ and ECHR, giving them money directly for nothing ie Horizon and indirectly through bone headed schemes like giving France Ā£500 million to increase illegal immigration, Ā£500 million to Tata for EU environment playing field, Ā£500 million to BMW for EU environment playing field, stop exploring gas, oil and gas for EU environment level playing field. While also deliberately increasing to historic levels illegal and legal migration against manifesto promise- another example of lack of integrity. Issuing millions of visas was not accidental or beyond his control he deliberately acted against the manifesto he promised to implement! That is a lack of integrity.

        1. Elizabeth Spooner
          September 17, 2023

          +1
          People vote on manifesto promises not later pledges that have never been put to the party let alone the country

        2. JoolsB
          September 17, 2023

          How differently things might have turned out if he and his gang hadnā€™t performed a coup on Truss. Truss, the nearest thing to a Conservative PM weā€™ve had in years, since 1990 in fact.

          1. Lynn Atkinson
            September 17, 2023

            If you honestly think Major was a Conservative you should be delighted with Sunak! He is no less a Conservative than Major – indeed more so – at least he believes Britain should exist!

    2. David Cooper
      September 17, 2023

      Perhaps the evident failure on all five at least partly reflects the downplayed and harmful pursuit of other targets of a subsidiary nature: phase out oil and gas fired boilers, prioritise public transport and cycling, get HS2 completed, maintain a level playing field with the EU, adhere to WHO overreactions, to name but five.

      1. Hope
        September 17, 2023

        The world benefitted when Sunak came to power and we are made to suffer the cost of his wanton largesse at taxpayer expense. I wish he goes to California earlier than planned and join the US lecture circuit or whatever his aim is. He has damaged our country enough.

    3. Lifelogic
      September 17, 2023

      The appalling 11,000 + deaths caused by the poorly maintained dams Derma/Libya should be a reminder to people that there are far, far more sensible things to do with money (to save lives) rather than piss it down the drain on the deluded net zero religion. Remember too the Whaley Bridge (all too close near tragedy) in the UK, so not just overseas.

      The book by Bjorn Lomborg, Best Things First: The 12 Most Efficient Solutions for the World’s Poorest and Our Global SDG Promises and his other book are good on this topic.

      I see that the BBC (this AM) seem to have moved their focus over ice coverage levels from the North Pole to the South – so as to keep their deluded Climate Alarmist exaggeration of agenda going at all costs. I assume the figures worked better this hear for their agenda than in the Arctic.

      They can always find something somewhere to frighten everyone it is quite a large world.

      1. hefner
        September 17, 2023

        No, simply that the maximum of the Antarctic sea ice extent (and the minimum of the Arctic sea ice extent) is usually seen in September-October, a fact related to the seasons on the Earth, don’t you know that as a distinguished multi-sciences BSc person? Rather surprising, isnā€™t it?

        earth.gsfc.nasa.gov ā€˜Current state of sea-ice coverā€™

      2. Hat man
        September 17, 2023

        The place is called Derna, Llifelogic. There was once a well-functioning irrigation system in Libya, which circulated rainwater down from the Green mountain area near Derna. That was until NATO went in and trashed the country, leaving it with no proper administration and no resources for things like infrastructure maintenance. So the dams near Derna burst.

        (And the BBC is trying to tell us the Libya floods were all to do with climate change!)

        Yes, I agree there are good things to spend money on, and there are things not to waste money on, e.g. a House of Commons library document has the total cost of Britain’s 2011 military campaign in Libya as Ā£320mn.

        A lot of African migrants fetching up on our shores would’ve had jobs in Gaddafi’s Libya, until Obama, Sarkozy and Cameron decided otherwise. Bad move in my opinion.

        1. Lynn Atkinson
          September 17, 2023

          +1

    4. a-tracy
      September 17, 2023

      This highest taxes in 70 years, how are they working that out, is it not just income taxes but all taxes whether or not people pay them. Eg people earning less than Ā£20,000 are paying lower taxes, people earning less then Ā£35,000 are paying less as national insurance costs have dropped, they donā€™t feel better off because an extra 8% is being taken now for workplace pensions.

      Not everyone pays inheritance tax.

  2. Everhopeful
    September 17, 2023

    In the first 40 years or so of the Marxist NHS it ran on and benefited from Nightingale rules.
    It worked NOT because of a new concept but because of the credit of the old system.
    Feminist politics took care of all that and now it just doesnā€™t work. And there is no credit left.
    You have people in it who do not know what they are doing.
    And the hierarchy and dedication needed to run an efficient and effective service have GONE!

    1. Ed M
      September 17, 2023

      ‘And the hierarchy and dedication needed to run an efficient and effective service have GONE!’

      – Well said. This is exactly what a very intelligent, erudite doctor in the private sector said to me recently. Well he focused more on your point about ‘hierarchy’ but I am sure he would have agreed with your ‘dedication’ point as well.

      1. Everhopeful
        September 17, 2023

        +++
        And Iā€™m sure it grieves the poor man.
        I have seen nurses being SO rude..even to consultants.

      2. forthurst
        September 17, 2023

        By hierarchy, he would be referring to the useless Arts graduates that infest the NHS. Get rid of them and save a lot of money and lives.

        1. Ed M
          September 18, 2023

          The guy was so smart and talking about something that was quite complicated that a lot of what he said went over my head. But I think he was saying the NHS should be run more like an army, with more hierarchy and accountability and people not afraid to give strict instructions etc (i.e. there is a lot of wet / liberalism in the NHS where to give ‘strict instructions’ might be seen as controlling / abusive / bullying etc – sure it CAN be but it’s a question of balance and I think he was saying that things have become too wet / liberal in the NHS. Again, this guy was a doctor who knows the place inside out).

  3. Everhopeful
    September 17, 2023

    How many hospitals and GP and dental surgeries would have to be built to even begin to cope with the numbers of newcomers in a proper fashion?
    Where would they fit in with all the houses now needed? And the windmills to fuel it all?
    Attract thousands upon thousands of people to a continent needlessly destroyed by its politicians.
    For what reason? The entire system is imploding.
    And we all sit and watch disempowered by political correctness.
    And pay.

    1. JoolsB
      September 17, 2023

      Over one million so called legal immigrants and over 100,000 illegals last year alone, all requiring housing, NHS treatment, schools etc., not to mention benefits. This from a not a Conservative Government which will be even worse under Labour. Our only chance is Reform.

      1. Everhopeful
        September 17, 2023

        +++
        I try to stay a little optimisticā€¦
        I do like Tice.

        1. MFD
          September 17, 2023

          Well Everhopeful, that is provided he means what he says unlike the Uniparties who continuously tell us lies.
          We are approaching the point of no return so lets that is true

          1. Everhopeful
            September 17, 2023

            Yes I pondered a long time over what to reply because my feelings are rather complex.
            Donā€™t they say that no small party can break the two party system we have? That a new party would struggle to get even one seat vis UKIP?
            I would love to think that Tice COULD win and that he MIGHT stick to what he has said. But I have huge doubts on both counts.
            Increasingly those on the Right say that politics is not the way to goā€¦but that living outside the system is. But how to do THAT?
            I am very much hoping that rumours of a Labour split are true. But theyā€™d prob still win!
            Overall of course you are rightā€¦the point of no return.

      2. Mike Wilson
        September 18, 2023

        Our only chance is Reform.

        Soooooooooo, no chance.

  4. Lifelogic
    September 17, 2023

    To get ā€œNHS waiting lists down you need to get the full engagement of NHS staff, which is not helped by strikes and disputes over pay and conditions of employment.ā€

    Indeed, well it would help if they paid them sufficiently, new junior doctors in London simply do not get enough take home pay to live on, rent a room in a shared flat, pay (just the interest) on their student debt, council tax, commuting costs, GMC feesā€¦ just do the maths. Many of the same age as a new doctor (circa age 24) are already paid three times as much in Law, Banking, Stock broking, Insurance, hedge funds, programmingā€¦

    Plus they ā€œhaveā€ to pay a fee to the GMC regulators too. An organisation has just removed all mention of ā€œmothersā€ from a maternity document for its staff. Rather like being forced to buy aTV licence in order for the BBC to use the money to bombard you with moronic propaganda.

    1. JoolsB
      September 17, 2023

      Spot on LL but obviously private health enjoyer Sunak and out of his depth Barclay couldnā€™t care less. Plus Junior Doctors have to pay for any specialist courses themselves and all their own medical equipment such as stethoscopes. Compare this to our greedy out of touch MPs who stick everything from their top of the range ipads and iPods and even their parking tickets on their expenses.

      Morale is at rock bottom in the NHS. Our highly educated Junior Doctors are being ignored and treated as nothing more than naughty children by Sunak and Barclay who refuse to talk to them. All they are asking is the same as Scots Junior Doctors, i.e. 12.4% but Sunak says this is too much for English Junior Doctors despite Scots Junior Doctors having no tuition fee debts and despite Sunak continuing to fund the Scots to the tune of 12 billion of English taxes every year. What an insult.

      My son after six years studying medicine at Cambridge and two as a Junior Doctor in London has now quit the profession for a better paid job in the city because he couldnā€™t afford to carry on living in London if he remained a Doctor. Worryingly, three of his fellow college cohorts have done the same and another two have gone to Australia. This is just one college from one university. If this is replicated across the whole country which no doubt it is, then we are in dire trouble.

      Meanwhile Sunak and Barclay sit on their aā€”ā€”s and think the answer is to ignore them. How grown up of them.

      1. Lifelogic
        September 17, 2023

        Indeed and what a sad waste of all that expensive training and their honed skills.

        1. JoolsB
          September 17, 2023

          Exactly.

      2. Hope
        September 17, 2023

        Well of course Sunak could introduce the cull of 90,000 civil servants and he could cull the numbers of NHS managers JR has highlighted that add no value to the service delivery of the NHS. The numbers could be redirected towards the private sector and/ or number of doctors, nurses, other clinical staff and cleaners. The non jobs of public sector no NHS culled ie diversity and inclusive nonsense, mangers of paper clips. He could force a change to public sector accounts and procurement so the taxpayer gets value for money, no. He chooses to increase quangos a stead of that bonfire we were promised back in 2010! Most quangos jammed full of left wing activists and supporters same for distrusted civil service as we saw last we week when a former mandarin said they cried at leaving EU!!! They made him a Lord!! 14 years ago Francis Maude was going to sort out civil service, recently Dominic Cummings- Tories have No intention of being or Implementing conservative policies.

        Their record and fact demonstrate this quite graphically. How many time has JR raised planning when his party heralded the planning legislation changes in 2010 under Boles!!

        Javid as Home Secretary was ā€œproudā€ to announce closure of detention centres for asylum seekers, refugeeā€™s, illegal immigrants. Where did the idiot think these people would be housed and what would happen if their application failed? What did his party and govt think?

        How about Brexit given the greatest mandate in history to leave the EU. Cameron ran away rather than implement what he said. May was utterly treacherous to her cabinet and the nation and Johnson resources singly failed. Sunak now acting directly against the nation mandate with an 85 seat majority (including ā€œleantā€Labour voters) as if he could not be bothered to achieve for the nation who voted for it!

      3. Lifelogic
        September 17, 2023

        Exactly.

    2. graham1946
      September 17, 2023

      The idiotic thing is that they have the money to settle but won’t, based on dogma alone. Where is this money? Well, they are permanently 10 percent short of staff so all those wages are not being paid, that’s where it is. Secondly and even more idiotic, is the cost of the strikes as well as the neglect of the patients in that by the time all this is sorted out, as it must be, it will cost more money than to have settled in the first place and of course ill people are not very productive to the economy. Barclay, in his obstinacy based on said dogma is not fit to be in charge of the NHS, he has no understanding of it, nor of people management – he continually says he will not negotiate money, backed up by his equally incompetent PM which precludes negotiations of any sort. Maybe we will have to wait for a change on government from the Coup that was perpetrated last year by PM Sunak but that will be very costly. They just don’t care, unaffected as they are by all of this, They never did care for the NHS and the Tories never wanted it in the first place.

  5. Everhopeful
    September 17, 2023

    Sunak needs to set up ā€œemergencyā€ ( they like those) local hospitals ( oh whoopsā€¦they pulled them all down). No matterā€¦.build local NIGHTINGALES. HA!
    Deal with whatever can be dealt with LOCALLY ( assuming there are any staff).
    And send those who need special, rare machines to wherever they are located.
    Cost, as we know, does not matter in the least little bitā€¦the govt. has oodles of cashā€¦or is it digital?
    And after all ā€¦we have always PAID for our NHS havenā€™t we?

  6. Peter D Gardner
    September 17, 2023

    Excuse me for venturing an outsider’s opinion, as I now live in Melbourne from where this problem of surgeries taking too long to answer the phone seems quite inexplicable. Possible explanations:
    a) Hardly anyone in UK has access to the Internet.
    b) Hardly anyone uses the Internet.
    c) Neither a) nor b) but very few surgeries have an online booking system.
    d) Surgeries make so few appointments available online the number of people still wanting an appointment greatly exceeds the capacity of reception staff.
    e) Those booking by phone get priority either because the most convenient appointments are reserved for telephone booking or because telephone bookings bump online bookings.
    f) It is so difficult to get an appointment by any means in a reasonable time that patients must telephone in order to plead the urgency of their case.
    g) The telephone reception staff are busy doing other tasks.

    I may have missed some explanations but from the above it is hard to see that the solution is more telephone reception staff. Cases a) b) and c) are surely not plausible in modern Britain. The solution to d) is to make more appointments available online. If there aren’t more that can be made available, then more GPs not more telephone staff are needed. Case e) is just bad management. The solution to f) is more GPs, not more telephone staff. The solution to g) is mainly management of processes and resources and might require more staff but not necessarily telephone staff.

    1. Denis+Cooper
      September 17, 2023

      “Surgeries make so few appointments available online”

      Ours “releases” batches of appointments, so you may be told to ring back at 3 pm when there will be fresh batch.

    2. Everhopeful
      September 17, 2023

      The internet is too slow a process for dealing with cancelled or altered appointments. It is not flexible enough and can lead to great confusion.
      Plus, obviously staff are needed to answer/solve queries and changes.They might as well answer the phone!
      And loads of these appointments come with threats of payment being taken for non attendance so one needs to know whether the problem is actually sorted out or not.
      AND believe meā€¦they are always very keen to contact a client by phone when they want to cancel because they are taking their mother to the hospital or their child is off school etc etc etc etcā€¦.

    3. Lifelogic
      September 17, 2023

      The explanation is very simple. In the NHS the GPs get paid the same whether they see the patients or not. The phone system is therefore actually ā€œdesignedā€ and intended by the GP practice to deter patients as much as possible with inconvenience hassle, time restrictions and v. long waits. Then patients will either go to casualty, give up, get better or just get even worse and go to casualty. Casualty departments similarly deter by deliberately having very long wait times. How many actually die each year while waiting for attention at casualty I wonder?

      In countries that do charge say Ā£40 (for going privately in the UK) or so for an appointment you never have any problem getting one the same day and usually with the doctor of your choosing often one specialising in your condition area perhaps. Nor do they moronically tell you that you can only discuss one problem per appointment (as they could be related conditions and far less efficient than doing this with two appointments)

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        September 17, 2023

        Exactly right.

  7. Peter
    September 17, 2023

    ā€˜ One way to help get the waiting lists for treatment down would be for the NHS to buy in more capacity from the private sectorā€™. No point in just doing that when you still spend money on wasted resources within the system. Deadwood needs to be removed.

    As for the Chief Executive and senior managers, they need to be held to account and not just allowed to appear in the media begging for even more money.

    The boats could be repelled by force, once you announced that this was going to happen. Any individuals reaching our shores could then be imprisoned. It would require the strength to ignore outdated agreements about refugees though.

    None of these things will happen of course. They five promises will not be delivered and the government will be out of office after the next election.

    1. Everhopeful
      September 17, 2023

      Re boats. Do you remember that back in 2009 a far-seeing politician made a similar suggestion in the EU Parliament? Subsequently he was crushed underfoot by the establishment.
      And just look at us now!

    2. Dave Andrews
      September 17, 2023

      And the next lot won’t achieve the five promises either, except perhaps inflation which naturally comes down anyway.

    3. Lifelogic
      September 17, 2023

      If the NHS gave people 50% of the money towards their procedures or ops to people who could afford to pay the other 50% and they went privately, then surely the NHS would save loads of money and the waiting lists would shorten for all the others! Then far more money going into medical care so more doctors, operating theatres, nurses and far more choice.

      Surely a simple win, win for all?

      1. graham1946
        September 17, 2023

        Yes, if all the surgeons etc. were wholly private. Trouble is there are not enough, private hospitals rely on NHS doctors to do their work in their spare time and of course they have no virtually emergency services or intensive care. Any mistakes they make end up back in the NHS.

        1. Lifelogic
          September 17, 2023

          Indeed but as more money goes in (state and private) you will attract or retain more doctors and medical capacity.

  8. Ian+wragg
    September 17, 2023

    Inflation is the BoE problem, the other 4 will fail miserably.
    If people vote liblabcon at the next election we’ll get net zero and EU compliance on steroids.
    No-one believed anything you say anymore.

    1. MFD
      September 17, 2023

      I totally agree with that Ian, we need people to put brain in gear and vote for anybody bar Liblabcon.
      Reform UK perhaps as Ms Widdecombe talks a lot of sense!

      1. Lifelogic
        September 17, 2023

        They do talk sense as does Richard Tice but alas the few tiny sensible parties will very lucky indeed to win a single seat, let alone any real power – given the FPTP voting systems that pertains.

        1. Lynn Atkinson
          September 17, 2023

          If it did not pertain, we would likely have a whole lot of parties that talk nonsense. Look at the list of the 372 Registered British Parties. ā€˜The womenā€™s hopscotch movementā€™ for instance!

  9. Everhopeful
    September 17, 2023

    Just after 2019 the NHS flouted every possible medical rule.
    And these are the dire consequences.

    1. Lifelogic
      September 17, 2023

      Circa two Grenville tower death tolls every day in average excess deaths UK it seem.

      A several good videos for Dr John Campbell on the excess deaths, vaccine cost benefits, the Nuremburg code and vaccine policies (even now looking rather evil).

      1. Everhopeful
        September 17, 2023

        +++
        Yes. I do watch Dr J

  10. Donna
    September 17, 2023

    1. They should never have allowed the criminal migration invasion to escalate to 50,000 a year to start with. There is no evidence that Sunak is “stopping the boats” or even reducing the invasion; although the weather has been quite helpful this year. Meanwhile, the Manifesto pledge to “reduce the overall numbers of immigration” has been blatantly and deliberately broken – with 1.2 million legal visas issued last year alone – leading to a net immigration figure of 600,000 IN ONE YEAR (plus the illegals).

    2. Covid policy (lock-downs, 2 years of restrictions and the mass experimental gene therapy trial) didn’t Save the NHS, it has wrecked it. Many medical/scientific experts warned about the consequences of closing down the NHS to everyone except Covid patients but they were effectively silenced by SAGE/the Government – not least Dr Carl Heneghen (Oxford University Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine) and Dr Karol Sikora (a world expert on cancer) and Dr Sunetra Gupta (Professor of Epidemiology).

    3. The current negative economic conditions (inflation, low growth, poor productivity) are also direct consequences of the Covid policy and closing down/restricting large parts of the private sector economy for 2 years. Sunak was a member of the Quad (Johnson, Gove, Handcock, Sunak) who took the decisions. So he is directly responsible.

    I am reminded of the medical oath to “First Do No Harm” – ie before intervening, first consider the possible harm that any intervention might do.

    The Government and the Quad didn’t even carry out a Cost/Benefit analysis of their proposed course of action, so they failed at the first hurdle of responsible governance. All Sunak/Hunt are trying and failing to do now, is fix the barn door which they helped destroy in the first place. Never forget that Hunt was Secretary of State for Health for 6 years and left the NHS incapable of dealing with a Low Consequence Infectious Disease despite being warned by the Cygnus Exercise/Report – and he wanted the Government to implement an even more draconian Chinese-Government-style lockdown).

    1. Lifelogic
      September 17, 2023

      Indeed and how could the health young, who were never at any real Covid risk, get any benefit from these risky new technology ā€œvaccinesā€? Even had they actually been ā€œsafe and effectiveā€ as they lied to us they were.

      1. Roy Grainger
        September 17, 2023

        Leaving aside all the various conspiracy theories it would be indeed interesting to know why the JCVI, apparently reluctantly at the time, eventually recommended vaccinating those under 16 when the risk to them of Covid was known to be close to zero and vaccination conferred no apparent benefit in terms of transmission. It should be addressed by the Covid inquiry but I’d be amazed if it was, they seem mired in “share your story” posturing and have already reached the conclusion there should have been harder/faster/longer lockdowns so “less” vaccination would run contrary to that.

        1. Lifelogic
          September 17, 2023

          Indeed either they were group think dopes, complete idiots, frauds or it is a case of follow the money how much funding came from Big Pharma. Would be good to see how on earth they came to such appalling decisions and what changed their minds?

    2. Jason Cartwright
      September 17, 2023

      The alternative view is that the ‘quad’ are competent and knew exactly what they were doing. Strange how the Anglosphere response was uniform and coordinated? Remember Build Back Better?

      1. Donna
        September 17, 2023

        Yes, it certainly looks as though it was deliberate and it most definitely was coordinated.

    3. Mike Wilson
      September 18, 2023

      The Government and the Quad didnā€™t even carry out a Cost/Benefit analysis of their proposed course of action

      Yeah, they should have waited while people dropped like flies – letā€™s not forget no-one knew if Covid 19 was going to be the ā€˜Black Deathā€™. On the whole, it was reasonably well managed. The usual ā€˜contracts for matesā€™ – which is a feature of all governments – did rather go on steroids. But the media was screaming at them all the time. Whereā€™s the PPE? Whereā€™s the vaccine? And the death figures every day.

  11. DOM
    September 17, 2023

    This is the politics of the past. The politics of today and tomorrow is utopian, progressive and in reality Marxist hate. Economic competence has become utterly disregarded.

    At some point the nation will collapse for that is the aim of the Left, it is when they do their best work when chaos, emotion and confusion is at its zenith.

    Tory MPs have one simply choice, stand with the moral majority and sell their souls to the Marxist-Maoist devil

    1. DOM
      September 17, 2023

      ‘or sell their souls’

    2. Wanderer
      September 17, 2023

      DOM, economic incompetence is becoming the aim. It’s called “degrowth” and the EU is funding a multi-million euro project to come up with a plan to reduce growth in the “global north” .

      https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/eu-invests-millions-in-dystopian-degrowth-project/

      1. Everhopeful
        September 17, 2023

        +++++++
        Yes!
        Exactly. All planned for a long time.
        It is also called giving up many peopleā€™s birthright, without their permission ( aka theft) for a mess of potage ( or a place on the first flight to Mars* or much promised wealth).
        * such is the extent of the madness!

  12. Denis+Cooper
    September 17, 2023

    Firstly I am not convinced that this government really wants to curb illegal immigration by whatever route. I do not make a distinction between any of the main political parties on this, as they all favour uncontrolled and unlimited mass immigration from whatever sources by whatever means.

    Secondly just on the matter of illegal channel crossings I am finding it difficult to refute the argument that these have proliferated as a result of Brexit:

    https://uk.news.yahoo.com/small-boats-industry-science-much-162655034.html

    “Before Brexit there was no small boats crisis: more proof that leaving the EU made everything worse”

    I have checked and found that this claim is factually true:

    https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/channel-crossings-tracker

    The government may claim that other factors are at work, for example that the small boats started after they had stopped people stowing away in lorries, but my strong suspicion is that at least some in government do want to stop them and that is why apparently nothing that is tried works.

    I am pretty sure that French national law and probably also EU law will require that the French authorities put a stop to these blatantly criminal activities but clearly they have no intention of upholding the law with any vigour, for whatever reasons which may include revenge for Brexit, so we should not rely on them.

    For years I have been saying that we should put a refugee holding camp – not a prison – on Ascension Island, which is our sovereign territory, and the pathetic excuses out forward by the Foreign Office confirm my belief that they do not want to solve this problem except by some kind of submission to their beloved EU:

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ascension-island-rwanda-population-map-b2388720.html

    “The island was previously considered a location to process asylum seekers, with ministers believing its remote location would create a strong deterrent for migrants hoping to cross the Channel.

    They were previously dropped after a feasibility study carried out by the Foreign Office declared Ascension Island unsuitable for various reasons, including inadequate power and water supplies and a lack of a hospital.”

    1. Denis+Cooper
      September 17, 2023

      “… at least some in government do NOT want to stop them …

  13. formula57
    September 17, 2023

    We know from the prime minister that the targets on boats and waiting lists will not be met and we know from you that achieving the economic targets will be a struggle. Time to go all New Labour and rebrand the five as “aspirations not targets”?

    1. formula57
      September 17, 2023

      Erratum – you did say inflation would fall although with the Bank poised to make another mistake next week the growth target will be in further doubt.

  14. Mark B
    September 17, 2023

    Good morning.

    He made a speech, set his five targets, bought some time, and now realizes no matter what, he and his party are doomed.

    But hey, India seems to have benefited rather well since he stole to power. Ā£500m for batteries. A few tens of millions here and there.

  15. Dave Andrews
    September 17, 2023

    I like the idea of treatments going private, but in the case of lifestyle diseases the individual should pay, not the NHS.

    1. Everhopeful
      September 17, 2023

      Have any diseases EVER been conclusively proven to NOT be down to lifestyle?
      Or indeed the reverse?

      1. hefner
        September 17, 2023

        Plague, cholera, poliomyelitis, dengue, Ebola, yellow fever? Ever heard of epidemics?

        1. Everhopeful
          September 17, 2023

          And were they proven to NOT be down to lifestyle?
          The NHS is there for when people who have contributed get ill.
          NOT as an arbiter of some totally bogus moral code.

          ā€œYou broke your leg motorcycling so no treatment for you!ā€
          ā€œYou caught plague cos you let rats into your houseā€¦no treatment for you.ā€
          ā€œ You are a thoroughly bad tempered and excitable personā€¦no blood pressure tablets for you!ā€

  16. James Morley
    September 17, 2023

    I agree with your list, but given the obvious Geopolitical risks must add right at the top of the list, to maintain and increase our Defence capabilities.

    James Morley

    1. Lynn Atkinson
      September 17, 2023

      So that they will last 5 instead of 4 days?

  17. Des
    September 17, 2023

    Here are five actual targets of government,
    1. Drive motorists off the road using ridiculous and dangerous EVs.
    2. Bankrupt people with impossible energy targets for their homes then steal those homes and turn us all into renters.
    3. Eliminate any privacy or freedom using CBDCs.
    4. Eliminate farmers to make us all totally reliant on industrial food supplied through government.
    5. Reinstitute the medical tyranny to thin us out even more with poison injections.
    Not a day goes by without more evdence of these aims.

    1. Lifelogic
      September 17, 2023

      Seems so.

      Plus tax and regulate us to death and bombard us with propaganda and climate alarmist net zero claptrap.

    2. Everhopeful
      September 17, 2023

      +++
      6. Shut us in small areas and fine us for exceeding our ā€œleaveā€ passes.

      1. Everhopeful
        September 17, 2023

        I bet theyā€™ll man those bordersā€¦with draconian force.

    3. Sharon
      September 17, 2023

      Des +1

    4. Wanderer
      September 17, 2023

      +1 Des. I could add a few more to that list, too.

    5. Bill B.
      September 17, 2023

      Now those targets are definitely achievable, Des! The Uniparty in government this year, next year and the year after will make sure of that.

    6. Paul cuthbertson
      September 17, 2023

      DES – All part of the WEF NWO plan.

  18. Bloke
    September 17, 2023

    The government receives so much sensible advice about what to do right but it keeps doing wrong and incompetence prevails.

    1. Neil Sutherland
      September 17, 2023

      It’s not incompetence, politicians hate you and want you gone.

      1. Bloke
        September 17, 2023

        I have gone: to The Reform Party.

        1. JoolsB
          September 17, 2023

          + 1

    2. Everhopeful
      September 17, 2023

      +++
      If it followed good advice it might become conservative.
      Couldnā€™t have that, could we?

  19. beresford
    September 17, 2023

    Still trying to blame ‘criminal gangs’. They are meeting demand from criminal migrants, who are now cutting out the middle man and buying dinghies directly. Presumably those dinghies will not be overcrowded and at risk of sinking, but the taxi service will take them to Dover anyway. If undocumented migrants who refuse a generous offer of transport home were held incommunicado in single-sex forced labour camps we wouldn’t need messy turn-backs at sea or return agreements. Left unchecked, the flow will not stop until this is an impoverished disease-ridden Third World country and migration is therefore pointless.

    1. Iago
      September 17, 2023

      …demand from criminal migrants. My impression is that they also have an air of conquerors, which bodes very ill for our nation. A message I sent this morning to someone overseas,

      RAF parade at the church this morning, fly past by three helicopters in formation, they slowly passed overhead, quite effective, band provided by the cadet force. A boat person with an air of victory was watching the end of the parade. Small rucksack, wheelie case, they arrive every day.

  20. Mark J
    September 17, 2023

    This country seems to be stuck in a choice of Conservative (Dumb), or Labour (Dumber) to ‘run’ the show. It is pretty clear that these two tired political parties are not fit for purpose any longer, nor have the ideas or credibility to fix ‘Broken Britain’.

    Neither seem to grasp that many issues the country have can be traced back to mass and the continuing saga of illegal migration.

    The more people you let into the country, the more financial burden is increased, you also need more public services to cope with the increased numbers. For which many incomers do not adequately financially contribute towards. The Conservatives and Labour look at every incomer as a net benefit to the UK, when in many cases this just isn’t true.

    I now strongly believe we need some kind of benefits entitlement card, linked to a central computer system. It would instantly cut off those not entitled to use our public services, nor entitled to our money. We cannot continue with this farce of open borders and lax checking of entitlement. It will eventually just cripple public services under the sheer weight of people.

  21. Bryan Harris
    September 17, 2023

    The five targets for government

    were nothing but more theatre.

    There will be no concerted effort to stop the boats, and there is no chance that the NHS will suddenly become fit for purpose, overnight, or in 5 years.

    Given the way that HMG and parliament create ever new oppressive legislation, like the Energy Bill, which was never mandated by voters, it is impossible to even imagine that they are working for our benefit.
    Instead they give us drama to entertain us, pacify us, and distract us.

    1. Wanderer
      September 17, 2023

      +1 BH. The trouble is, so far their dramatics seem to be working. Not enough people have woken up yet, or feel inclined to do anything about it.

      1. Mickey Taking
        September 17, 2023

        I’ve said for years the Electorate is sleepwalking into economic (and other things) collapse due to APATHY.

        1. Paul cuthbertson
          September 17, 2023

          MT- It does not matter what party anybody votes for the Globalist UK Establishment are in control. As soon as they realise the whole system is rigged and has been for decades then maybe they will wake up. But people are very fickle and the whole system of government has to be changed. Change is coming and Panic will ensue. Nothing can stop what is coming, NOTHING

          1. Lynn Atkinson
            September 17, 2023

            The panic in the political classes is setting in. There are demonstrations on the streets of Germany and Belgium – Schulz made a John Major-like speech – contradictory in alternate sentences. Trying to blame the Germans for the deindustrialisation šŸ˜‚šŸ¤£
            We are in for exciting times. Baerbok claimed Germany ā€˜had supported Ukraine for all of the 560 days last yearā€™. These are not very clever people.

  22. Mike Wilson
    September 17, 2023

    One way to help get the waiting lists for treatment down would be for the NHS to buy in more capacity from the private sector, as it did during covid,

    Bought it in – but DIDNā€™T USE IT. I had to pay 3 grand for a hernia operation during Covid because I couldnā€™t get the NHS to do it. Can I please have my money back?

    Neurologist told my wife the other day to change her blood pressure medication. She asked what she should change to and he said ā€˜talk to your GPā€™. She rang the GP surgery and was told she could talk to a doctor – ON THE PHONE – in SIX WEEKS! NHS! What NHS?

    1. a-tracy
      September 17, 2023

      I actually think as health minister Iā€™d want a report line for poor service from GP practices. Iā€™m personally very lucky and our GP practice is good, has a patient panel, has regular questionnaires for patients, and you can get appointments online, by e-mail or over the telephone. I personally donā€™t mind a primary telephone appointment. Referrals for blood work is very fast. MRI a couple of weeks. There is only physio that has longer delays.

      I think the NHS managers should be concentrating on worst practices and see if it is because they have too many patients per GP (there are big disparities. I would also look at the socio economic area for that practice because middle class people tend to self-treat a lot more conditions.

      I think if we can share out a fair proportion of social tenants better, every area no more than 15% but every area with 15% it would help to ease many problems.

    2. margaret
      September 17, 2023

      Well Mike, if she had a consultation with a hospital Dr then usually advice would follow re either an outpatient letter or discharge letter making recommendations. I can’t see why every one wants to see a Dr when the Nurse Practitioners would probably see within a week , would prescribe and monitor regularly . Old fashioned perceptions abound by those who don’t understand levels of expertise.

  23. agricola
    September 17, 2023

    Lots of questions SJR , thank you for asking them, but I do not see any answers outside your own thoughts. We your contributors have put forward solutions but there has been little sign that anyone is responding. I think the government is marking time to the election awaiting the realisation that the opposition is an even worse option and the consocialists will return by default. I do not buy into such and hope that Reform with exquisite timing hit the home straight with solutions the electorate can respond to. The momentum for such is increasingly detectable.

  24. William Long
    September 17, 2023

    But has the Secretary of State asked the Chief Executive for a workable plan such as you describe? If he has, and she has failed to produce it, why is she still in post? If he has not done so, then it is he who should be sacked. Either way , the buck stops with the accountable Minister, and not with an official, however senior.

  25. Christine
    September 17, 2023

    Why are three world-class cancer hospitals lying unused? The pleas from cancer specialist, Professor Karol Sikora, to reopen these facilities go unheeded. They could be used to treat 20,000 patients a year.

    1. Lifelogic
      September 17, 2023

      Indeed.

      Lots more heart problems & arrhythmias too caused it seems by the ā€œsafe and effectiveā€ Covid Vaccines, but perhaps not much can be done to correct this damage in many cases, hopefully many will self repair.

    2. Paul cuthbertson
      September 17, 2023

      Christine – It is all about depopulation.

  26. Ed M
    September 17, 2023

    Billions and billions could be saved if people led more healthy lives (‘healthy’ in every sense).

    I was in a big Tesco store recently and the sh-t people were stacking up in their trolleys was frightening. Tonnes of packets of crisps, and chocolate, and processed food. SUGARY. SALTY. PROCESSED. SH*T.

    The body can only take so much. All of this stuff is directly linked to all the major diseases that affect one (costing the NHS trillions ..). But not just the NHS. If you’re eating all this sh*t and not taking any exercise (huge amount of fat, tattooed people in Tesco), it’s going to make you DEPRESSED (physiologically) in so many different ways – which in turn affects relationships and production at work.

    So all this sh*t they are selling in stores is a secret killer in so many different ways and costing MIDDLE-CLASS TAX PAYERS – TRILLIONS.

    I know we live in a free country. But surely there is more we can do, in arts and media and culture, to try and promote more healthy living? With Tories using their contacts in arts and media and culture to help out here. Something like that. And not forgetting that, yes, people are getting rich from selling all this sh*t food to others but other rich people are having to pay for the consequences in HIGH TAXES, CRIME and LOWER PRODUCTIVITY.

    (And with far, far less people going to the NHS because they are healthier, the NHS budget would be hugely reduced and also far easier to manage).

    And if we had healthier people in body and mind, then there would be ZERO need for immigration (except a small trickle of people for niche professional jobs) – so this is related to IMMIGRATION as well.

  27. Christine
    September 17, 2023

    I saw my local NHS A&E in all its glory a few weeks ago. A five-hour waiting time. The throughput was abysmal and the doctors and nurses seemed to spend most of their time being totally unproductive.

    1. Mickey Taking
      September 17, 2023

      The ‘nurse’s station’ is the equivalent of the office ‘water cooler’.

  28. Christine
    September 17, 2023

    Itā€™s OK to leave an elderly person with a broken hip lying in pain on the floor for many hours, whilst providing a row of ambulances to greet the boats that land on our shores every day together with access to their own doctors and dentists. This country has its priorities totally wrong.

    1. Keith Collyer
      September 17, 2023

      That doesn’t happen outside the minds of racists and Daily Mail readers. If you believe it, you have been lied to by the same people who told you Brexit would solve all our problems when anyone who thought about reality rather than fantasy knew it would make everything worse.

      1. Christine
        September 17, 2023

        I am not a racist nor do I read the Daily Mail. I’ve seen this with my own eyes, as I’ve held the hand of two elderly relatives, in the past 12 months, who waited in pain for 6 hours and 12 hours with broken hips waiting for an ambulance, so nobody needs to lie to me. As for Brexit, it could be a wonderful thing if only politicians would deliver what was voted for. Why you think the corrupt, dictatorial, wasteful EU is a good thing is beyond me but many people don’t have a clue about it and couldn’t even name one of the five unelected presidents. Get over it, you lost.

      2. Mark B
        September 18, 2023

        The moment you used the word, ‘racist’ you lost all credibility. Congratulations.

      3. Mickey Taking
        September 18, 2023

        Brexit was to enable a start on solving our problems. Sadly people in every walk of life conspire to frustrate it.

        1. a-tracy
          September 19, 2023

          I think that is going to be the Lib Dems job this next election, the left are trying to persuade them to be the party of rejoin, overturn Brexit again. Then if they get the Tory protest vote Labour can say that being a coalition that was the price of the coalition agreement.

          That is why the left like coalition politics because even if the right was a close second they can be ignored.

  29. Christine
    September 17, 2023

    The boats would stop overnight if these illegal immigrants were returned straight back to France. Itā€™s politicians who are preventing this, putting peopleā€™s lives at risk and funding criminals.

    1. Timaction
      September 17, 2023

      They could do this but refuse to do it. Turning back the boats was and is the only solution. If the boot was on the other foot do you imagine France waiting for political niceties to return our illegals. No. Time to be firm has come and TELL France to police its borders and return its boat people or we will immediately. Weak and cowardly Tory’s want these immigrants under some hidden agreement like Starmer proposes as our “quota”.

  30. Roy Grainger
    September 17, 2023

    I don’t understand the government target to reduce inflation. That’s almost entirely out of the government’s hands because the BoE, which attempts to control inflation via interest rates, is explicitly independent of government, and external factors like the world energy price does most of the rest. I know Sunak/Hunt have been claiming personal credit for the recent small fall in inflation but what actual policies have those two implemented which played any part in that ? No public spending cuts or notably low public sector pay awards that I can see. Of course neither of them shouldered the blame when inflation was rising so it makes no sense for them to claim credit when things get better.

  31. Ralph Corderoy
    September 17, 2023

    Providing the money for private healthcare supplies to whittle down NHS waiting list is insufficient because the NHS as a whole will resist its use.ā€‚Whether that’s from ideology or not wanting to show up the NHS’s flaws by the public discovering how they could be treated is up to the individual NHS worker.ā€‚You’ve pointed out repeatedly how the extra paid-for private capacity during Covid wasn’t used by the NHS.ā€‚The lesson learnt by the NHS on seeing how well military logistics ran the NHS Covid ‘vaccine’-delivery service could well just be to avoid being shown up again.

    It’s this resistance to using the private sector, despite the harm to patients, which needs to be solved.

  32. Bert+Young
    September 17, 2023

    Having objectives is one thing achieving them is another . Actions have always had more effect than words and this principle should be applied to whatever the Government decides ; sadly the mechanism so far has failed . ” Stopping the Boats ” should mean we STOP THEM ! – send them back to France !. Germany has put its foot down and we must and can do the same . We have for years molly coddled our way through many international problems and it has done nothing to enhance our standing in world affairs . Australia has maintained a realistic stance on illegal immigration without losing any respect and we should do the same .

  33. Michael Saxton
    September 17, 2023

    The patience of reasonable and fair minded citizens is running out as the comments above clearly indicate. I have little or no confidence in the PMā€™s objectives, they are not working and in my judgement have a poor chance of success. Spending almost Ā£500 billion during lockdown with huge associated waste and fraud was a serious mistake and we are paying for it now. The NHS is broken, itā€™s far too big and itā€™s badly managed. We need independent regional health authorities without the interfering and meddling of central government. The criminal enterprise in the Channel is worse than ever and this government and parliament lack the will and determination to stop it. Illegal migrants now take priority over our own people. As for the BoE they have proved to be incapable stewards of inflation, their policies have failed along with their forecasts and management of bonds. Their forecasting is as bad as the OBR and thatā€™s saying something! Our Country lacks clear decisive leadership and direction. It is not getting it.

    1. a-tracy
      September 19, 2023

      We have independent regional health authorities. Manchester is one of them with oversight of a massive budget of Ā£6 billion ‘devo health’ they called it in 2016 with an ex-NHS Minister in charge of it, one of the worst waiting lists in the Country.

      These pilots have made a laughing stock of the Tories whilst keeping their hands clean. You never read any criticism of them overseeing the combined health and social care for that area.

  34. Keith Collyer
    September 17, 2023

    Let’s look at those five targets:
    – curb illegal migration
    Nothing this government is doing will achieve that. We used to have a return agreement but the traitors who promoted Brexit tore that up in their haste to screw the country
    – bring down health waiting lists
    Don’t blame the striking NHS staff. This has been caused by underfunding since the idiotic austerity measures brought in by free market dogmatists who are still in thrall to discredited Hayekian economics
    – cut inflation
    Not having to pay more for imported goods because of unnecessary tariffs and checks caused by leaving the common market would be a good start.
    – boost growth
    Historically, as you well know, growth has been boosted most when taxes, especially on those who can afford it like me and Sir John, are high so public spending can be increased
    – control public sector borrowing.
    Same answer as previous. We wouldn’t need to borrow so much with a sensible tax regime. We now owe many times what we did in 2010 because of failed Tory economic policies that amount to little more than screwing as much out of the economy for the rich.

    1. a-tracy
      September 19, 2023

      Keith, I’m always curious about this return agreement; how many of those who arrived illegally in the UK got returned to France or elsewhere in Europe? What %?

  35. oldwulf
    September 17, 2023

    “One way to help get the waiting lists for treatment down would be for the NHS to buy in more capacity from the private sector, as it did during covid….”

    The huge backlog of the NHS could easily swamp the private sector hospitals.
    For better or for worse, this would then be nationalisation by the backdoor.

    During covid, I am aware of private surgery which was delayed for months because of the arrangement to prioritise the NHS, which took over a local private hospital. Idealogically, this may not be a problem to some people but it does not inspire confidence in the UK health service as a whole.

  36. Original Richard
    September 17, 2023

    Make no mistake, for those who are really in control there is only one target for the U.K. It is the destruction of the economy using Net Zero and social cohesion/stability/the nation state using mass legal and illegal immigration.

    1. Mark B
      September 18, 2023

      +1

      Build Back Better

      In order to build something, one must first destroy that which was before.

      1. Mickey Taking
        September 18, 2023

        destroy seems to be going quite well.

  37. Richard II
    September 17, 2023

    It is reported that Sunak has finally listened to some ‘advisers’ and wants to ‘review’ the Net Zero policy.

    This is a far more important undertaking than his useless five pledges which he probably never expected to fulfil.

    I look forward to hearing more about how Sunak is going to go about it- with what sort of input and even more importantly, input from whom? If someone like our good host was going to put in a good word, I would be more confident. But I fear Sunak is simply going to put the overwhelming commonsense objections to Net Zero to doctrinal advocates of it and see what they say. They will then blind him with science, fake science of course, but he may not be allowed to tell the difference.

    1. Mark B
      September 18, 2023

      The key word is, ‘review’. Code for, look like you are going to do something whilst knowing that nothing will be done.

      1. Mickey Taking
        September 18, 2023

        Review seems to mean a few hand-picked mates meet for an hour, mention the difficulties, decide they are insurmountable, gently wring hands for a few moments, conclude nothing can be done…..close meeting.

      2. margaret
        September 18, 2023

        Yes you are quite right and this is the same for general practice. There is little use in investigating problems coming up with a diagnosis and referring if the patient cannot get to secondary care for follow up treatment. We can commence on many medications but conservative treatment is not curative and many conditions can be reversed by surgery.
        There is also a problem with wound care . We can say what the patient needs and prescribe , but by the time the patient gets to wound care the problems are a lot worse. An example of this is where a patient has a hip replacement in a different area to the general practice. They come to the GP wanting 40 clips to be removed and the surgical team don’t provide clip removers , they expect the GP to pay for their procedures and buy clip removers. Then we have to transfer the patient to wound care and the appt is 2 weeks after the time when removal of clips should take place. If the service isn’t provided the common get out is ‘go to your GP’

        1. a-tracy
          September 19, 2023

          Why isn’t the clip removal appointment made when the operation date is provided, especially if it is out of area?

  38. George Sheard
    September 17, 2023

    Hi john
    I was told I needed urgent treatment for my eyes in November 2022 I am still waiting I’m told I will have to wait at least 55 weeks
    Even though the treatment is urgent
    I am 76 years old and have paid my share over my working life and still paying
    If I had just got off a boat from france illegally and never paid into the system I would not have to wait very long
    ” Give everything get nothing
    Give nothing and get everything :
    Thank you

  39. Lindsay+McDougall
    September 17, 2023

    To get NHS waiting lists down, you need to recruit and retain sufficient doctors and nurses. Forget about what the correct base year is for computing rises, what does the law of supply and demand require NOW. I reckon that a pay rise of about 15% would do the trick. Luckily, there are many savings that can be made in the NHS:
    – reduce the number of policy making bodies
    – reduce the number of Senior Managers
    – reduce the number of non-clinical staff
    – get rid of all Equality and Diversity officers
    – demand that doctors delegate some tasks to nurses and pharmacists
    – drop expensive drugs that extend the fag end of life by a few months

    In the long run people will recognise that free-at-the-point-of-consumption die-on-the-waiting-list does not work, never has worked and never will work. The waiting lists are caused by lack of demand management. Using spare resources in the private sector won’t alter that.

    1. oldwulf
      September 17, 2023

      @Lindsay+Mcougall

      A quote from the late Tony Benn in 1995 !!

      “I expect that the House has heard of the little document, which is circulating, about the boat race between the NHS and a Japanese crew. Both sides tried hard to do well, but the Japanese won by a mile. The NHS was very discouraged and set up a consultancy. The consultancy came to the conclusion that the Japanese had eight people rowing and one steering, whereas the NHS had eight people steering and one rowing. The NHS appointed people to look at the problem and decided to reorganise the structure of the team so that there were three steering managers, three assistant steering managers and a director of steering services, and an incentive was offered to the
      rower to row harder. When the NHS lost a second race, it laid off the rower for poor performance and sold the boat. It gave the money it got from selling the boat to provide higher than average pay awards for the director of steering services …”

      https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199596/cmhansrd/vo951122/debtext/51122-36.htm

    2. Lmatkinson
      September 17, 2023

      The other option is to reduce the number of patients – you know – only those who have paid into the system for over 30 years say. Same scale as the pension system would clear the waiting lists.

    3. Diane
      September 18, 2023

      And yet …. E & D officers ? – just when we thought we already had them, a report (DT 17/9) ‘NHS to spend Ā£millions creating woke diversity & inclusion jobs’ Three new departments – around a Ā£14m budget ( before any extras kick in ) NHS England drawing up plans for Equality Diversity & Inclusion, People & Culture and People & Communities. The Health Secretary is said to be frustrated.

  40. XY
    September 17, 2023

    No-one has a problem with the spirit of what the targets are trying to achieve, the problems with Sunak’s version are:

    1. They were all he aimed at, nothing else. With so many issues to deal with.
    2. They were all easy to achieve, even inflation was only being “halved” from over 10% (and it was supposedly not in Sunak’s control, but the BoE’s).
    3. They were easy – but he still failed.
    4. There was no plan, just a list of aspirations – as our host says. Nothing said about leaving the ECHR, for example, not even named as a last resort.
    5. They were all things which should have been sorted out long ago for a govt of 13+ years.

    All in all – no-one was going to be impressed if he “succeeded” in picking low-hanging fruit. But he didn’t even do that.

    With all the rest that was going on, including the defenestration of Johnson via the Marsupial Justice System… Sunak shows us weak government at its worst. I’m not sure he cares (I expect he’ll be off to the USA/India soon enough), but he definitely needs to go – immediately.

  41. a-tracy
    September 17, 2023

    When asylum claimants are passed through, what happens to them, do they get to keep their hotel room, or like the rest of us are they expected to get a job and look out for themselves? How long do they get to sort themselves out or can they then claim universal credit?

    1. Oli Olbas
      September 17, 2023

      This is not lost on pensioners.

  42. Geoffrey Berg
    September 17, 2023

    It is not the actual targets I object to though, as the blog points out, Sunak has not gone the right way about maximising the chances of fulfilling the economic (and indeed NHS) targets. It is the political idiocy of publicly proclaiming these targets, indeed making them the main yardsticks for judging the success or failure of government when some, indeed it now seems most, are unlikely to be met. Even a clown at the circus probably wouldn’t do so, let alone a non-clown circus performer. We (and the Conservative Party) would be far better off without a third rate political clown running the government and its re-election campaign.

    1. Mark B
      September 18, 2023

      Targets are one thing. Policies designed to achieve said targets are another. Everything else is just noise.

  43. Oli Olbas
    September 17, 2023

    14 years of Tory disaster.

    5 targets ? What about crime ? You’ve legalised shoplifting at a time that the online (non-taxpaying) corporations are eating the high street alive – and XL bully dogs are literally eating sons protecting their mums alive.

    What about the shit state of the roads and the weeds taking over pavements ?

    What about woke ?

    What about the fact that the housing market is now unfit for buyers, renters AND rentiers through punitive tax and high interest ? How did you manage that ?

    The immigration scandal is hiding the important figures. Not the 1m poor coming in but the 500k going out who will all be educated, skilled and monied.

    I can’t recall a worse government. I was a kid in the ’70s so do remember reading with mum by torchlight during the power cuts but this era really does have the feeling of the Last Days of Rome about it.

    Stop giving this party credibility by lending it your name, Sir John.

  44. mancunius
    September 18, 2023

    Why take seriously the ‘promises’ of an unelected, not very technically-minded ‘technocrat’ PM who is only doing the job as a thing to have on his cv?
    In two years’ time, Sunak will be in the world of international finance wheeler-and-dealership: the IMF, World Bank, UN, WEF etc, and scarcely able to recall that he was the PM.

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