https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68913287

<quotes>

Former minister and Conservative MP Dan Poulter has defected to Labour.

Defections are rare. Such departures are damaging. And Dr Poulter's blast at the Tories' record on the health service in particular will hurt.

Dr Poulter, who works part time as a doctor, said that Conservatives were no longer focused on public services.

</quotes>

I am not sure why he thinks the tories were ever focused on public services, other than to cut them, to sell them into private ownership.

Still we should applaud his move and recognition that the tories are letting the country down, causing untold suffering.

In contrast Lee Anderson defected to Remain because he wanted to cause even greater suffering.

On Sat, 27 Apr 2024 18:54:14 +0100, The Happy Hippy wrote:

> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68913287
>
> <quotes>
>
> Former minister and Conservative MP Dan Poulter has defected to Labour.
>
> Defections are rare. Such departures are damaging. And Dr Poulter's
> blast at the Tories' record on the health service in particular will
> hurt.
>
> Dr Poulter, who works part time as a doctor, said that Conservatives
> were no longer focused on public services.
>
> </quotes>
>
> I am not sure why he thinks the tories were ever focused on public
> services, other than to cut them, to sell them into private ownership.
>
> Still we should applaud his move and recognition that the tories are
> letting the country down, causing untold suffering.
>
> In contrast Lee Anderson defected to Remain because he wanted to cause
> even greater suffering.

Conservatives' reply:
"Under the Conservatives we are raising NHS funding to a record £165bn a
year, helping it recover from the effects of the pandemic and driving
forward its first ever long term workforce plan so that we train the
doctors and nurses we need for the future in our country."

---

That's largely meaningless because the inflation rate has been so high.
Also it implies that the money is available now, which isn't forced to be
the case.

One thing that makes healthcare so expensive is the expensive medicines.
Research is carried out like prospecting for gold with successes financing
a presumably much greater number of failures. I can't help but think
that's a good place to start looking for savings. I'd say the government
should take over research for more expensive or frequently-needed
treatments so that it owns the patents but then the taxpayer would finance
the entire 'failures' bill as well as paying for the medicine itself.

OK HH, now you think of something!

On 28 Apr 2024 04:05:10 GMT
TWP <ngspammersad@yahoo.com> wrote:

> On Sat, 27 Apr 2024 18:54:14 +0100, The Happy Hippy wrote:
>
> > https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68913287
> >
> > <quotes>
> >
> > Former minister and Conservative MP Dan Poulter has defected to
> > Labour.
> >
> > Defections are rare. Such departures are damaging. And Dr Poulter's
> > blast at the Tories' record on the health service in particular will
> > hurt.
> >
> > Dr Poulter, who works part time as a doctor, said that Conservatives
> > were no longer focused on public services.
> >
> > </quotes>
> >
> > I am not sure why he thinks the tories were ever focused on public
> > services, other than to cut them, to sell them into private
> > ownership.
> >
> > Still we should applaud his move and recognition that the tories are
> > letting the country down, causing untold suffering.
> >
> > In contrast Lee Anderson defected to Remain because he wanted to
> > cause even greater suffering.
>
> Conservatives' reply:
> "Under the Conservatives we are raising NHS funding to a record
> £165bn a year, helping it recover from the effects of the pandemic
> and driving forward its first ever long term workforce plan so that
> we train the doctors and nurses we need for the future in our
> country."
>
> ---
>
> That's largely meaningless because the inflation rate has been so
> high. Also it implies that the money is available now, which isn't
> forced to be the case.

And ignores the fact that more people need more treatment.

Victor Adebowale was as usual brilliant on Question Time, countering Sunak's 'sick note skivers' insult, by noting 2 million have long-covid, plus millions more on the waiting list, wanting to get better so they can return to work.

And it's also true that government policy of lockdown without catering for the consequences is what caused many of the mental health problems the tories are trying to dismiss as non-existent. Typical Sunak thinking; bung them some money and will fix things.

And rampant inflation driven by capitalist greed hasn't helped.

Having to pay back student loans, not being able to get on the housing ladder, facing the constant threat of immediate eviction, is inflicting a horrendous amount of mental health problems on the under 30's, which they can't escape from, will dog them forever. That's dire.

The claimed investment in nurses and doctors is an outright joke when they've capped numbers enrolled on courses and removed grants, are trying to hold back salaries more than they already have.

> One thing that makes healthcare so expensive is the expensive
> medicines. Research is carried out like prospecting for gold with
> successes financing a presumably much greater number of failures. I
> can't help but think that's a good place to start looking for
> savings. I'd say the government should take over research for more
> expensive or frequently-needed treatments so that it owns the patents
> but then the taxpayer would finance the entire 'failures' bill as
> well as paying for the medicine itself.

But! What about the Free Market you commie ?

We cover their losses, they keep their profits. Capitalism. That's how it's meant to work. And we keep voting for it.

Whilst I agree we should have public R&D, the problem is that most expensive R&D and particular drugs are funded by the cheaper stuff.

And how do we stop it becoming a vehicle for the government to move tax payer money into the elite's back pocket as happened with covid contracts ?

There's a reason the tories want to abolish the NAO and all the oversight bodies, want to end court's right to hold government to account.

What we need is some international agreements where there is huge amounts of money to be made but it's capped. Pfizer made something like $100 billion out of selling covid vaccines, something like $5 billion was sucked out of the NHS because of at least 300% mark-up. Pfizer had an effective GDP greater than many countries. It really was taking from the poor to give to the elite.

But the rightwing are against international agreements, want to destroy international institutions, favour isolationism and globalisation, so that's not going to happen. Capitalism is fundamentally about stealing from the hardworking poor to gift to the idle rich. Shareholders not citizens, profit before people.

And when we did invent the Astra-Zeneca vaccine that was so so inferior to Pfizer's that no one bought the lies, nor bought the product. Even the UK chose Pfizer once it had a choice.

It really was Alexi Sayle's "if we had invented the Sony Walkman it would have been made of polished mahogany, the size of a tea chest, and have earphones from a Lancaster bomber".

> OK HH, now you think of something!

I did suggest we perhaps not spend quite so much money on very expensive treatment of those who are near 'end of life' anyway, that this 'we've got to extend life no matter the cost' may not be compatible with limited funding.

Libmeldy costs £2.875m per patient. Should we really be spending that on one person rather than treating 10 with almost £300K each, or 100 with £27K ?

It's callous to deny treatment but so is spending £50K to give a 90 year old an extra 5 years if it means a 20 year old has only 5 years left.

We're in this mess because as soon as anything like this is suggested the rightwing rabble start ranting about "death panels". They kill any possibility of change dead, which suits their agenda of destroying the NHS, replacing it with private healthcare, putting sick citizens into hock forever. It's simply another path of stealing from the poor to give to the elite.

On 28 Apr 2024 04:05:10 GMT
TWP <ngspammersad@yahoo.com> wrote:

> OK HH, now you think of something!

Rwanda is a safe country; parliament passed a law which says so despite the evidence against.

Can't they just pass a law to end deaths ?