Agenda 2019

  http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/09/hospitals-need-thousands-extra-nurses-or-patients-safety-at-risk New NHS guidelines propose maximum of eight patients to one nurse to prevent dangerous understaffing Safe nursing levels recommended   Hospitals need thousands of extra nurses 'or patients' safety will be at risk' More confirmation of what many of us have been saying for years. The cuts imposed by this ConDem coalition, are decimating the NHS and not only in staffing levels for nurses. The whole structure is being systematically dismantled, in preparation for selling to Tory "friends" in the private sector. Successive governments have contributed to various degrees, to the decline in the NHS and have perpetuated the fallacy that more levels of "management" producing their graphs, charts, statistics and medical prioritisations, are far more important than increasing the numbers of doc...

  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/nhs/10562382/Fears-for-the-elderly-under-new-NHS-drugs-policy.html   Fears for the elderly under new NHS drugs policy   Elderly at risk ?   NICE is the organisation which bases its opinions, decisions and reports on financial cost , rater than medical benefit to the patient. If ever a whole department was eligible for the government austerity axe, NICE should be at the top of the hit list to be cut,  thereby saving money and lives.

http://news.sky.com/story/1071610/nhs-drug-plea-for-child-with-blood-disorder  NHS Drug Plea For Child With Blood Disorder.   Indie Smith  The parents of a two-year-old girl with a rare blood disorder fear she faces a "lifetime of hospital visits and dialysis" unless the NHS funds an expensive new drug.Her problem is that the NHS will not continue to fund her treatment, at a cost of £250,000 a year, despite a Government advisory body recommending the drug be commissioned nationally.  It seems to me that there is a very simple solution to this problem. Select any 3 bankers from RBS, Barclays, HSBC, or any of the others, and confiscate £1million from each of  their bonuses for 2012, (just like the bankers in Cyprus confiscated money from savers), and use the £3miilion to fund the treatment for 12 years. By the end of that period, NICE should have come to some conclusion (or better still will have been dismantled and replaced by a more useful...

  http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/prescribe-cheaper-drugs-gps-told-8433635.html Prescribe cheaper drugs, GP's told Medical benefit or cost?  The decision to prescribe any drug should be based on medical benefit, not on cost. The people at NICE, Open Health Care UK and Mastodon C, Government, Jeremy Hunt and all the others really should grasp that essential truism. There is justification for prescribing a less expensive alternative drug, but only where the doctor is absolutely convinced that the medical benefit to the patient is at least as beneficial as the more costly option.

Thanks and appreciation for a first class service from cardiology generally, the day ward people, the catheter lab team and the people on Maude Alex who tolerated my music, warped humour and (sometimes no doubt) controversial comments, in fitting my pacemaker then sorting the glitch. Great job. Many thanks.   Why is the Dorchester County Hospital closing beds (and wards), getting rid of nursing staff, shedding ancillary staff like porters, cleaners etc AND AT THE SAME TIME completing the creation and fitting out of a new ward for the exclusive use of PRIVATE PATIENTS? http://www.dchft.nhs.uk/  

Father refused cancer drug This case is outrageous, but unfortunately is not unique in this present age of cuts, targets, economic benefits, cost effectiveness etc etc. Having had some experience (albeit not to the same severity as Glen Cunningham) of NICE and its "Guidelines", it is appalling that a medical decision is based solely on "cost". No matter what their Website may say Nice is a top heavy, jobs for the boys organisation,populated by accountants, bureaucrats, and gravy train executives, sparsely sprinkled with a few "medical professionals" making medical decisions based on economics rather than medical necessity and Health PCT's the other arm of this sorry tale, are only too keen to hide behind NICE in order to meet their budgets. We can find money for all sorts of expenditure (of our money) which many would argue should not even be on the list for Government funds and yet we deny drugs and treatment for people in medical need. Not only o...