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Pages tagged "NHS"

The pay gap

The following article is by Dr Timothy Tomkinson, a doctor currently working in the NHS. 

The NHS is a very interesting prism through which to view the recent discussion on the gender wage gap.

Language matters, and a lot of the statistics quoted are misleading to the point of falsehood. Listening to Stellar Creasy last week, she referenced an unknown hospital where “for every fifty nine pence a woman earns, a man earns a pound”

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NHS: National Horror Story

The taxpayer is funding a scandalous shambles, argues the Rev Dr Peter Mullen PhD.

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Boris wants more money for the NHS. May and Hammond do not

I use an acid test when judging cabinet ministers. Would they have served in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet? Margaret Thatcher always surrounded herself with competent ministers, and those who were found wanting didn’t remain in office for very long. She hated sycophancy, and she would not have tolerated a cabinet colleague pleading for their job for an hour and a half during a ministerial reshuffle.

Although I do not believe that Margaret Thatcher would have wanted to move Jeremy Hunt from his position. He has faced down the unions and defends the NHS to the hilt. He may not be a card carrying Freedom Association member, but he’s not a Remoaner; he’s not trying to derail Brexit and he is a highly intelligent man. A cabinet full of Jeremy Hunt’s would not be my cup of tea, but compared to the current batch, it would be an improvement.

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What will it take for us to have a real debate about the NHS and how it is funded?

The following article is by Dr Timothy Tomkinson, a doctor currently working in the NHS. 

Walking through the Emergency Department on an average day, it is clear that the system is not coping. From both the long waiting times by each patient’s name, to the hallways filled with elderly patients on trollies, it is evident that the NHS is not keeping up with demands.

Whilst we can all agree that there is a very real problem with the NHS, the big question is how we change this. Accessing any news source, it seems clear there is cross-party support for more NHS funding, as well as public opinion polls showing an equal desire – perhaps from both individual and government sources. However, in order to improve the NHS, we first need to determine the exact cause of the crisis (both in the short and long term). Therefore, we should consider a few facts:

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It is time for politicians to be open minded and look at the alternatives to the NHS

From the Daily Telegraph on 10 October:

“THE NHS could be heading for its worst winter beds crisis, with some hospitals already reaching breaking point, doctors warned yesterday.

“More than two months before the annual flu outbreak is expected, hospitals have begun turning patients away because they have no beds and too few staff. Some hospital managers have warned that levels of emergency admissions are far higher than this time last year and that the pressure on the NHS can only get worse over the coming months.”

Sounds familiar? What I neglected to tell you was that the article was published on 10 October 2000 - over 17 years ago. Winter crises in the NHS are nothing new. We have them virtually every year. So what has happened to NHS funding during those 17 years? Has it risen, stayed more or less the same, or has it decreased?

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