This country sickens me. The current cohort of pensioners are the most selfish generation this country has ever seen.
Undergraduates who begin their studies this autumn will be the first generation to face repaying their student loans until after they retire, analysis shows.
This year’s freshers will be the first cohort to take out the Government’s new “Plan 5” loans, meaning that their debt will not be written off until 40 years after they have graduated, as opposed to 30 years previously.
The same cohort will also have to begin paying their loans off earlier. While current graduates must start paying their debt back once they start earning £27,295 a year, students on Plan 5 loans will need to start their repayments once they are on a salary of £25,000.
These changes mean that most graduates will make repayments past the Normal Minimum Pension Age of 55, while those who leave university in their mid or late twenties could be left making repayments past the current State Pension age of 66.
Plan 5 loans are one of those things (lower interest rate! lower repayment threshold!) that sound generous but are actually utterly evil in their effect.
Trouble is that explaining why takes more than three words so... BORING!
I've often thought it would be quite fun to write a comparative history of the three Chamberlains, and call it 'Lords of the Commons: The Chamberlain dynasty.'
Never had time to do it though.
Three very interesting and very different characters. All of them rose to be party leaders, but all their careers ultimately ended in eclipse. Also - interestingly - all of them were still MPs at the time of their death.
This is to the credit of May: Four years after being deposed as PM, she's still an MP (and I don't think she's announced standing down at the next GE?). It's too early to say for Truss. Johnson lasted a year. Cameron a few months. Brown five years. Blair virtually zero time. Major four years.
Staying long after you've left the top job indicates to me that you may be in it for public service, not just power.
Or in Truss's case she might be otherwise unemployable.
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
About 1,300 calories. Hope it was worth it!
Nope. Feeling deeply cheated. Could have had something guey and sweet for that sort of calorie intake.
This country sickens me. The current cohort of pensioners are the most selfish generation this country has ever seen.
Undergraduates who begin their studies this autumn will be the first generation to face repaying their student loans until after they retire, analysis shows.
This year’s freshers will be the first cohort to take out the Government’s new “Plan 5” loans, meaning that their debt will not be written off until 40 years after they have graduated, as opposed to 30 years previously.
The same cohort will also have to begin paying their loans off earlier. While current graduates must start paying their debt back once they start earning £27,295 a year, students on Plan 5 loans will need to start their repayments once they are on a salary of £25,000.
These changes mean that most graduates will make repayments past the Normal Minimum Pension Age of 55, while those who leave university in their mid or late twenties could be left making repayments past the current State Pension age of 66.
Plan 5 loans are one of those things (lower interest rate! lower repayment threshold!) that sound generous but are actually utterly evil in their effect.
Trouble is that explaining why takes more than three words so... BORING!
A few months ago I was hit with this frightening realisation.
The current generation of 30/40 year olds and below will not be able to retire ever as they have to rent their entire life.
We are in serious danger of becoming an NHS with a small country attached. It is already absorbing an insane proportion of public expenditure and yet it produces ever more absurd figures like these.
Is there anyone well in this country? Anyone at all who is not on a waiting list for something?
It appears not.
I'm well. Could shift a few pounds though.
Teeth not brilliant. But not spending thousands on them to get them perfect.
"Scientists at Fermilab close in on fifth force of nature
Scientists near Chicago say they may be getting closer to discovering the existence of a new force of nature.
They have found more evidence that sub-atomic particles, called muons, are not behaving in the way predicted by the current theory of sub-atomic physics.
Scientists believe that an unknown force could be acting on the muons.
More data will be needed to confirm these results, but if they are verified, it could mark the beginning of a revolution in physics."
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
A friend once had fish and chips at the Plough, just outside Cambridge. The fish was piping hot on the outside, but the white meat was still frozen. A fishy baked alaska. I still wonder how the chef managed that.
This just had irradiated batter and an arid dryness that pained the palate. Awful. Just awful. In the home of our North Sea fleet. The Mushy peas were extraordinary. The chips limp, greasy and tasteless. Truly a remarkable effort that must have required both focus and determination.
Are you sure you are Scottish? I thought f&c was a fish supper north of the border.
No party will go near the NHS in terms of a major reform . Its too dangerous to their election chances . You can get away with more people treated in the private sector to help lower waiting lists but you’re not asking people to pay anything extra or making fundamental changes to the model .
The French system whilst not perfect has many areas that the British could learn from and its public private model works well.
The private isn’t what many would properly class as in the true sense of the term . It’s non-profit based in the main .
The truth is, of course, almost all health systems in the world are struggling. But some are struggling rather more than others.
The NHS showed its strengths as an organisation in the pandemic, where its top down model and highly centralised systems allowed the rapid rollout of vaccines. It's now showing its weaknesses as a whack a mole for treating symptoms of illnesses as cheaply as possible.
True and of course the public are suspicious of any major changes . I’ve lived in France and can say from experience that the system is better . Even small things like how quickly you get test results and the tie up with the labs . Also when you want a referral to a specialist there’s none of this waiting around for weeks to know when your appointment will be .
So easy to be first these days! TSE must have his keys taken away!
I've been on holiday for the past week.
So... you go on holiday, and nothing happens ... I mean zip, niento, bugger all, not a thing! Mike pops down to Waitrose ...!
I'm still reeling from paying £9 for a 750 ml bottle of water in London.
Where was that? Boots sell them for only £1.
The Ritz restaurant.
Motto: We Saw You Coming
This is like your Turnbull and Asser James bond shirts. I bought a James bond watch 6 or 7 years ago for about 7 shirts equivalent, and after 7 years wear it's worth more than I paid for it. Shirts, not so much and bottled water still less. Conspicuous consumption doesn't have to involve literally pissing it away.
The food was divine, the chef was amazing, they could have convinced me to try their pineapple laden pizza.
I've often thought it would be quite fun to write a comparative history of the three Chamberlains, and call it 'Lords of the Commons: The Chamberlain dynasty.'
Never had time to do it though.
Three very interesting and very different characters. All of them rose to be party leaders, but all their careers ultimately ended in eclipse. Also - interestingly - all of them were still MPs at the time of their death.
This is to the credit of May: Four years after being deposed as PM, she's still an MP (and I don't think she's announced standing down at the next GE?). It's too early to say for Truss. Johnson lasted a year. Cameron a few months. Brown five years. Blair virtually zero time. Major four years.
Staying long after you've left the top job indicates to me that you may be in it for public service, not just power.
Or in Truss's case she might be otherwise unemployable.
We are in serious danger of becoming an NHS with a small country attached. It is already absorbing an insane proportion of public expenditure and yet it produces ever more absurd figures like these.
Is there anyone well in this country? Anyone at all who is not on a waiting list for something?
It appears not.
70 million minus 8 million suggests 62 million not on the lists. And that assumes no one is on twice.
We are not great at comparing the NHS to other health systems. I’d be interested to know about waiting lists in other comparable countries. If the situation is better elsewhere, does it not suggest the NHS model may need changing? It’s not as simple as just Tory funding too low, surely?
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
A friend once had fish and chips at the Plough, just outside Cambridge. The fish was piping hot on the outside, but the white meat was still frozen. A fishy baked alaska. I still wonder how the chef managed that.
This just had irradiated batter and an arid dryness that pained the palate. Awful. Just awful. In the home of our North Sea fleet. The Mushy peas were extraordinary. The chips limp, greasy and tasteless. Truly a remarkable effort that must have required both focus and determination.
Are you sure you are Scottish? I thought f&c was a fish supper north of the border.
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
A friend once had fish and chips at the Plough, just outside Cambridge. The fish was piping hot on the outside, but the white meat was still frozen. A fishy baked alaska. I still wonder how the chef managed that.
This just had irradiated batter and an arid dryness that pained the palate. Awful. Just awful. In the home of our North Sea fleet. The Mushy peas were extraordinary. The chips limp, greasy and tasteless. Truly a remarkable effort that must have required both focus and determination.
Are you sure you are Scottish? I thought f&c was a fish supper north of the border.
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
A friend once had fish and chips at the Plough, just outside Cambridge. The fish was piping hot on the outside, but the white meat was still frozen. A fishy baked alaska. I still wonder how the chef managed that.
This just had irradiated batter and an arid dryness that pained the palate. Awful. Just awful. In the home of our North Sea fleet. The Mushy peas were extraordinary. The chips limp, greasy and tasteless. Truly a remarkable effort that must have required both focus and determination.
Are you sure you are Scottish? I thought f&c was a fish supper north of the border.
Not in a Wotherspoon. Never again.
I'm enjoying your attempts to spell it right. Wither. Wother.
What the health service needs is more choice and flexibility not just extra state funds alone.
Good to see the Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said Labour would be open to more private health care providers being involved in health care provision
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
A friend once had fish and chips at the Plough, just outside Cambridge. The fish was piping hot on the outside, but the white meat was still frozen. A fishy baked alaska. I still wonder how the chef managed that.
This just had irradiated batter and an arid dryness that pained the palate. Awful. Just awful. In the home of our North Sea fleet. The Mushy peas were extraordinary. The chips limp, greasy and tasteless. Truly a remarkable effort that must have required both focus and determination.
Are you sure you are Scottish? I thought f&c was a fish supper north of the border.
Not in a Wotherspoon. Never again.
I'm enjoying your attempts to spell it right. Wither. Wother.
We are not great at comparing the NHS to other health systems. I’d be interested to know about waiting lists in other comparable countries. If the situation is better elsewhere, does it not suggest the NHS model may need changing? It’s not as simple as just Tory funding too low, surely?
I thought I'd ask GPT4 to do some basic comparisons with other 'western' countries.
I'll provide a general overview of several 'western' countries' healthcare systems, including their financing mechanisms and a brief look into outcomes vs. expenditure.
1. **United Kingdom - National Health Service (NHS)**: - **Financing**: Primarily funded through general taxation. - **Outcomes**: Generally positive health outcomes, especially given its cost. The NHS often faces challenges with waiting times for certain procedures. - **Expenditure**: As of my last update in 2021, the UK spent about 9.8% of its GDP on healthcare.
2. **Germany**: - **Financing**: Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) system, where employees and employers pay a percentage of wages into sickness funds. - **Outcomes**: High standard of care, with relatively short waiting times compared to other Western countries. - **Expenditure**: About 11.7% of GDP as of 2021.
3. **France**: - **Financing**: National health insurance, funded through payroll and income taxes. Supplementary insurance is common. - **Outcomes**: Known for its high-quality healthcare, though with challenges in equity. - **Expenditure**: Around 11.3% of GDP.
4. **Canada**: - **Financing**: Publicly funded and primarily delivered by private providers. Provinces and territories have their insurance plans funded by federal transfers. - **Outcomes**: Good overall health indicators, though waiting times for certain services and specialists can be an issue. - **Expenditure**: About 10.7% of GDP.
5. **United States**: - **Financing**: Mixed system. Private insurance (often employer-based), Medicare for the elderly, Medicaid for low income. A significant portion of the population remains uninsured or underinsured. - **Outcomes**: Has world-leading facilities and innovation but struggles with equity and health disparities. High rates of avoidable hospitalizations. - **Expenditure**: Highest in the world, at about 17% of GDP as of 2021.
6. **Sweden**: - **Financing**: Regionally-based national health service, funded through taxation. - **Outcomes**: High life expectancy and positive health outcomes, but has challenges with waiting times. - **Expenditure**: About 11% of GDP.
7. **Australia**: - **Financing**: Mix of public and private. Medicare provides public insurance, funded through income taxes. - **Outcomes**: High standard of care, with both public and private options available. - **Expenditure**: About 9.3% of GDP.
Remember, while expenditure as a percentage of GDP provides a snapshot of a country's investment in health, it doesn't capture the complete picture. Many factors, such as service efficiency, administrative costs, wages, and drug prices, can influence how much is spent and the quality of outcomes.
Furthermore, countries might have similar expenditure percentages but very different absolute amounts of spending due to disparities in GDP.
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
A friend once had fish and chips at the Plough, just outside Cambridge. The fish was piping hot on the outside, but the white meat was still frozen. A fishy baked alaska. I still wonder how the chef managed that.
This just had irradiated batter and an arid dryness that pained the palate. Awful. Just awful. In the home of our North Sea fleet. The Mushy peas were extraordinary. The chips limp, greasy and tasteless. Truly a remarkable effort that must have required both focus and determination.
Are you sure you are Scottish? I thought f&c was a fish supper north of the border.
Not in a Wotherspoon. Never again.
I'm enjoying your attempts to spell it right. Wither. Wother.
It is the trauma of visiting a Wetherspoons.
I'd need therapy.
I secretly like them. Good beer. There is food, of a sort. Delayed flight at Edinburgh Aiport - sorted.
She could be, but she shouldn't be. Being married to an ex president is surely not enough for a tilt at the crown. If the US is so broken that Michelle Obama is the best out of 360 million people, then they may as well give up. She probably wouldn't be any worse than Biden, and better than Trump but it sniffs of Hilary Clinton wanting her turn.
He's like: I talked to some bloke who knows some bloke in a foreign government who has a theory that.. lol.
It's bollocks. She has no interest in politics. Like for Bushes, Kennedys, Trumps, Clintons Obamas this is a name thing.
Which really highlights ignorance of the actualite of American politics.
Remember Tony Benn's grand-daughter standing in the 2010 GE? She ended up in third place.
Compared to the Kennedy clan's cancerous hands on US politics. Or the Bush's. Or the attempts by Clinton.
We're meant to be more class-driven and aristocratic than the US; the reality can be quite different. Where did Sunak come from? Or Truss? Or even Blair?
The US still has aristocratic elites, not only the big money families like the Rockefellers and Vanderbildts and most likely going forward the Gates and Bezos' but also in politics. They may not have a royal family but from the Adamses, to Kennedys to Roosevelts and Bushes and Gores they have often produced political dynasties and also husband and wife candidates like the Clintons, Doles and now it seems maybe the Obamas
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
A friend once had fish and chips at the Plough, just outside Cambridge. The fish was piping hot on the outside, but the white meat was still frozen. A fishy baked alaska. I still wonder how the chef managed that.
This just had irradiated batter and an arid dryness that pained the palate. Awful. Just awful. In the home of our North Sea fleet. The Mushy peas were extraordinary. The chips limp, greasy and tasteless. Truly a remarkable effort that must have required both focus and determination.
Are you sure you are Scottish? I thought f&c was a fish supper north of the border.
Not in a Wotherspoon. Never again.
I'm enjoying your attempts to spell it right. Wither. Wother.
I do wish people who bang on about pensioners wouldn't whinge about NHS waiting lists in the same breath. Most patients waiting for treatment are pensioners. Most people of working age don't use the NHS from one year to the next.
She could be, but she shouldn't be. Being married to an ex president is surely not enough for a tilt at the crown. If the US is so broken that Michelle Obama is the best out of 360 million people, then they may as well give up. She probably wouldn't be any worse than Biden, and better than Trump but it sniffs of Hilary Clinton wanting her turn.
He's like: I talked to some bloke who knows some bloke in a foreign government who has a theory that.. lol.
It's bollocks. She has no interest in politics. Like for Bushes, Kennedys, Trumps, Clintons Obamas this is a name thing.
Which really highlights ignorance of the actualite of American politics.
Remember Tony Benn's grand-daughter standing in the 2010 GE? She ended up in third place.
Compared to the Kennedy clan's cancerous hands on US politics. Or the Bush's. Or the attempts by Clinton.
We're meant to be more class-driven and aristocratic than the US; the reality can be quite different. Where did Sunak come from? Or Truss? Or even Blair?
The US still has aristocratic elites, not only the big money families like the Rockefellers and Vanderbildts and most likely going forward the Gates and Bezos' but also in politics. They may not have a royal family but from the Adamses, to Kennedys to Roosevelts and Bushes and Gores they have often produced political dynasties and also husband and wife candidates like the Clintons, Doles and now it seems maybe the Obamas
To be fair to both Gates and Bezos (particularly the former): AFAIAA none of their kids have tried to go into politics. Bezos' might be a bit young, though.
We are not great at comparing the NHS to other health systems.
And then asked it specifically about the UK, Canada and Australia
**United Kingdom - National Health Service (NHS)**
- **Financing**: The NHS is primarily funded through general taxation. There are no charges for most services, though there are some prescription charges in England. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have made some divergent policy decisions, including the removal of prescription charges.
- **Delivery**: Mostly public. GPs act as gatekeepers, meaning they control access to specialist services.
- **Outcomes**: - Life expectancy: As of 2021, 81.4 years - Healthcare quality is generally seen as good, though waiting times for certain procedures can be longer than in some other Western countries. - The UK tends to perform well in healthcare quality rankings considering its expenditure.
- **Challenges**: - Increasing waiting times. - Underfunding and staff shortages in certain areas. - Aged infrastructure in some regions.
**Australia**
- **Financing**: A mix of public and private financing. Medicare, the public health scheme, is funded through income taxation. There's also a Medicare Levy which most taxpayers pay, and high-income earners without private hospital cover pay an additional Medicare Levy Surcharge.
- **Delivery**: Both public and private providers. Public hospitals are primarily funded by state governments, and there is a significant private health sector, including private hospitals and practitioners.
- **Outcomes**: - Life expectancy: As of 2021, 83.5 years. - Generally high standard of healthcare. Two-tiered system allows for choice between public and private.
- **Challenges**: - Geographic disparities in access, especially in rural and remote areas. - Rising costs of private health insurance and out-of-pocket expenses. - Long waiting times for certain elective surgeries in public hospitals.
**Canada**
- **Financing**: Publicly funded, primarily through general taxation at the provincial and territorial levels. Federal government provides support through the Canada Health Transfer.
- **Delivery**: Primarily private delivery, with most hospitals operating as non-profits. Doctors are typically paid on a fee-for-service basis.
- **Outcomes**: - Life expectancy: As of 2021, 82.3 years. - Good overall health indicators. However, as with many countries with a public system, waiting times for certain services and specialists can be an issue.
- **Challenges**: - Wait times for certain specialist services and elective surgeries. - Geographic disparities, especially in the northern regions and among indigenous communities. - Some argue the system needs more diversified funding to reduce wait times and improve service delivery.
Goodness, vanilla's post size limit is annoying...
**Comparison Summary**:
- **Expenditure as a % of GDP (approximate as of 2021)**: - UK: 9.8% - Australia: 9.3% - Canada: 10.7%
- **Healthcare Model**: - UK: Nationalized health system. - Australia: Mix of public and private with a public guarantee. - Canada: Publicly financed with private provision.
- **Major Strengths**: - UK: Comprehensive coverage, no or low out-of-pocket expenses for most services. - Australia: High standard of care, choice between public and private. - Canada: Universality, no direct charges at the point of care.
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
A friend once had fish and chips at the Plough, just outside Cambridge. The fish was piping hot on the outside, but the white meat was still frozen. A fishy baked alaska. I still wonder how the chef managed that.
This just had irradiated batter and an arid dryness that pained the palate. Awful. Just awful. In the home of our North Sea fleet. The Mushy peas were extraordinary. The chips limp, greasy and tasteless. Truly a remarkable effort that must have required both focus and determination.
Are you sure you are Scottish? I thought f&c was a fish supper north of the border.
Not in a Wotherspoon. Never again.
I'm enjoying your attempts to spell it right. Wither. Wother.
It is the trauma of visiting a Wetherspoons.
I'd need therapy.
I secretly like them. Good beer. There is food, of a sort. Delayed flight at Edinburgh Aiport - sorted.
Like a McDonalds, if you are hungry, job jobbed. But don't expect quality. But don't expect to pay much for it, either.
The problems occur when you pay alot for inferior product.
(Though it sounds like DavidL's experience was exceedingly poor.)
This country sickens me. The current cohort of pensioners are the most selfish generation this country has ever seen.
Undergraduates who begin their studies this autumn will be the first generation to face repaying their student loans until after they retire, analysis shows.
This year’s freshers will be the first cohort to take out the Government’s new “Plan 5” loans, meaning that their debt will not be written off until 40 years after they have graduated, as opposed to 30 years previously.
The same cohort will also have to begin paying their loans off earlier. While current graduates must start paying their debt back once they start earning £27,295 a year, students on Plan 5 loans will need to start their repayments once they are on a salary of £25,000.
These changes mean that most graduates will make repayments past the Normal Minimum Pension Age of 55, while those who leave university in their mid or late twenties could be left making repayments past the current State Pension age of 66.
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
A friend once had fish and chips at the Plough, just outside Cambridge. The fish was piping hot on the outside, but the white meat was still frozen. A fishy baked alaska. I still wonder how the chef managed that.
This just had irradiated batter and an arid dryness that pained the palate. Awful. Just awful. In the home of our North Sea fleet. The Mushy peas were extraordinary. The chips limp, greasy and tasteless. Truly a remarkable effort that must have required both focus and determination.
Are you sure you are Scottish? I thought f&c was a fish supper north of the border.
Not in a Wotherspoon. Never again.
Why would you even have contemplated it?
Because I had been to 2 pretty ordinary restaurants and got no change out of £45 a night over the last 2 nights. This was cheap, more like £11.50. But it really wasn’t worth it. Where have all the decently priced restaurants gone?
I'm waiting for the line about the NHS being the third biggest global employer after the PLA and Indian Railways but never mind.
There is a valid point about bringing in more private sector involvement in provision but ultimately we need, for a growing and ageing population, more hospitals, more doctors, more nurses and a better network of care and support for the older population (and the younger too if truth be told).
We need the emphasis on mental health started by the Coaltion under Norman Lamb and supported by some Conservatives to continue and develop. Good mental health is as important as good physical health and the two are related.
We also need much stronger public health education - it's NOT about telling people what to do as much as providing the information from which individuals can make informed lifestyle choices.
Whether that's public, private or a mixed provision I really don't care.
They proved very popular in Indiana, when Mitch Daniels introduced them for state workers. From what I read about them -- possibly from biased sources -- they reduced costs and, if anything, improved outcomes.
(I said "look hard", rather than "introduce", because I haven't seen any good, recent studies on them. I'm sure there are some, but they haven't got much publicity.)
See my seminal NHS PB header, which I think has aged well. I suggested SIPP style Health and Social Care accounts, tax deductible and used for self funded Health and Social Care. These would be under the control of the holder, so not prone to refusal, as private health insurance is.
Private insurance won't cover chronic conditions, mental health, dementia care, maternity, pre-existing conditions etc, and tends to get rid of potentially expensive customers by jacking up premiums. Insurance companies sell you an umbrella on a sunny day, and take it back when it rains.
This country sickens me. The current cohort of pensioners are the most selfish generation this country has ever seen.
Undergraduates who begin their studies this autumn will be the first generation to face repaying their student loans until after they retire, analysis shows.
This year’s freshers will be the first cohort to take out the Government’s new “Plan 5” loans, meaning that their debt will not be written off until 40 years after they have graduated, as opposed to 30 years previously.
The same cohort will also have to begin paying their loans off earlier. While current graduates must start paying their debt back once they start earning £27,295 a year, students on Plan 5 loans will need to start their repayments once they are on a salary of £25,000.
These changes mean that most graduates will make repayments past the Normal Minimum Pension Age of 55, while those who leave university in their mid or late twenties could be left making repayments past the current State Pension age of 66.
So easy to be first these days! TSE must have his keys taken away!
I've been on holiday for the past week.
So... you go on holiday, and nothing happens ... I mean zip, niento, bugger all, not a thing! Mike pops down to Waitrose ...!
I'm still reeling from paying £9 for a 750 ml bottle of water in London.
Where was that? Boots sell them for only £1.
Actually Mr Trains...
I believe the honorific is actually "God Of All Trains", although the more fanatic Sunilists add more ornate addenda, ending in "...Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rix and Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed".
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
A friend once had fish and chips at the Plough, just outside Cambridge. The fish was piping hot on the outside, but the white meat was still frozen. A fishy baked alaska. I still wonder how the chef managed that.
This just had irradiated batter and an arid dryness that pained the palate. Awful. Just awful. In the home of our North Sea fleet. The Mushy peas were extraordinary. The chips limp, greasy and tasteless. Truly a remarkable effort that must have required both focus and determination.
Are you sure you are Scottish? I thought f&c was a fish supper north of the border.
Not in a Wotherspoon. Never again.
I'm enjoying your attempts to spell it right. Wither. Wother.
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
I do wish people who bang on about pensioners wouldn't whinge about NHS waiting lists in the same breath. Most patients waiting for treatment are pensioners. Most people of working age don't use the NHS from one year to the next.
This the problem though.
When people talking about demographic pressure, it's not that there is going to be a huge surge in older people (though there will be a small one as the boomers age and die in the 2030s) - it's that there are so few younger people bringing up the rear to pay for it all.
And it's getting worse - the fertility rate of my generation is insanely low. In Scotland this is a particularly stark issue, as we simply can't attract enough inwards migration.
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
I wasn't disagreeing, just pointing out that there is a link between NHS spending in England and the funding available to the Welsh Government.
I do wish people who bang on about pensioners wouldn't whinge about NHS waiting lists in the same breath. Most patients waiting for treatment are pensioners. Most people of working age don't use the NHS from one year to the next.
Well that is inevitable. Universal health care whether state funded, or mandatory insurance is essentially redistributive. The working well pay tax or premiums but rarely need much expense, the poor or chronicly sick and elderly pay less but get more.
Worth noting that the "working well" and "poor, chronically sick and elderly" are not fixed populations, but transition from one group to the other, and even more so when considering family.
In other news, I'm glad / alarmed / amazed to see our HST 125's, nearly fifty years old, being exported to Mexico for further service. AIUI on a new railway line:
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
I'm not generally a fan of term limits, or other restrictions on who the electorate are permitted to elect, but having a bar on any direct family members of a former MP from being nominated for election is a tempting one.
William Pitt the Younger is an obvious example where this would have barred someone exceptional, but would we really have missed out on anyone else?
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
A friend once had fish and chips at the Plough, just outside Cambridge. The fish was piping hot on the outside, but the white meat was still frozen. A fishy baked alaska. I still wonder how the chef managed that.
This just had irradiated batter and an arid dryness that pained the palate. Awful. Just awful. In the home of our North Sea fleet. The Mushy peas were extraordinary. The chips limp, greasy and tasteless. Truly a remarkable effort that must have required both focus and determination.
Are you sure you are Scottish? I thought f&c was a fish supper north of the border.
Not in a Wotherspoon. Never again.
I'm enjoying your attempts to spell it right. Wither. Wother.
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
A friend once had fish and chips at the Plough, just outside Cambridge. The fish was piping hot on the outside, but the white meat was still frozen. A fishy baked alaska. I still wonder how the chef managed that.
This just had irradiated batter and an arid dryness that pained the palate. Awful. Just awful. In the home of our North Sea fleet. The Mushy peas were extraordinary. The chips limp, greasy and tasteless. Truly a remarkable effort that must have required both focus and determination.
Are you sure you are Scottish? I thought f&c was a fish supper north of the border.
Not in a Wotherspoon. Never again.
I'm enjoying your attempts to spell it right. Wither. Wother.
There’s a vowel in there somewhere. “E” is next.
Wuthering Spoons.
Cathy and Heathcliff ate daily at Wetherspoons. It's the only thing that could explain what happened to them. Enough to drive anyone mad...
So easy to be first these days! TSE must have his keys taken away!
I've been on holiday for the past week.
So... you go on holiday, and nothing happens ... I mean zip, niento, bugger all, not a thing! Mike pops down to Waitrose ...!
I'm still reeling from paying £9 for a 750 ml bottle of water in London.
And you paid it? Bottled water, rather than tap, is for those with more money than sense at any price.
Comes oot the tap fur nu'hin. Nothing brings out my inner Scotsman quite like being asked to pay for water.
The problem is that, if you have got used to delicious fresh well water, then you will struggle with chlorinated town water.
Our recent trip to Bath was marred by the disgusting tap water. This was a fairly strange experience for a born and bred Londoner, who had fallen ill on a Scout trip to Galway as a teenager because the chlorine was missing from the water (not actually a diagnosis, but whatevs).
Is it acceptable to ask for a drink of the tap water when looking at a house for sale?
I do wish people who bang on about pensioners wouldn't whinge about NHS waiting lists in the same breath. Most patients waiting for treatment are pensioners. Most people of working age don't use the NHS from one year to the next.
Well that is inevitable. Universal health care whether state funded, or mandatory insurance is essentially redistributive. The working well pay tax or premiums but rarely need much expense, the poor or chronicly sick and elderly pay less but get more.
Worth noting that the "working well" and "poor, chronically sick and elderly" are not fixed populations, but transition from one group to the other, and even more so when considering family.
Isn't that just the nature of most individuals' life cycle, though, rather than being 'essentially redistributive'? I don't recall using the NHS at all until I reached 60, as one of the 'working well', but obviously by that time I'd paid a lot in to it. In recent years, I have cost the NHS a bit of money. Seems fair to me, and what one would expect.
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
I wasn't disagreeing, just pointing out that there is a link between NHS spending in England and the funding available to the Welsh Government.
Yes and I understand that and it applies to Scotland, but my concern is for my family and friends who are treated by Wales NHS and in the last 3 months a relative of my son in law had a botched routine operation and contacted sepsis, and died within a couple of weeks of the operation to the distress of his family
I have also learned today that the husband of a neighbour also went in for a routine operation a couple of days ago and the surgeon damaged his bowel and he very ill at present
To me the problem is right across the UK health services and while the English will attack the conservatives for their inability to resolve the issues, we are entitled to attack those in Wales equally responsible which is Wales Labour
In other news, I'm glad / alarmed / amazed to see our HST 125's, nearly fifty years old, being exported to Mexico for further service. AIUI on a new railway line:
On a slightly related note I have just had fish and chips in Aberdeen in a Witherspoon's Nuked doesn’t really cover it. It really ought to be illegal to do that to a fish. Especially in Aberdeen. I mean FFS.
So easy to be first these days! TSE must have his keys taken away!
I've been on holiday for the past week.
So... you go on holiday, and nothing happens ... I mean zip, niento, bugger all, not a thing! Mike pops down to Waitrose ...!
I'm still reeling from paying £9 for a 750 ml bottle of water in London.
And you paid it? Bottled water, rather than tap, is for those with more money than sense at any price.
Comes oot the tap fur nu'hin. Nothing brings out my inner Scotsman quite like being asked to pay for water.
The problem is that, if you have got used to delicious fresh well water, then you will struggle with chlorinated town water.
Our recent trip to Bath was marred by the disgusting tap water. This was a fairly strange experience for a born and bred Londoner, who had fallen ill on a Scout trip to Galway as a teenager because the chlorine was missing from the water (not actually a diagnosis, but whatevs).
Is it acceptable to ask for a drink of the tap water when looking at a house for sale?
This country sickens me. The current cohort of pensioners are the most selfish generation this country has ever seen.
Undergraduates who begin their studies this autumn will be the first generation to face repaying their student loans until after they retire, analysis shows.
This year’s freshers will be the first cohort to take out the Government’s new “Plan 5” loans, meaning that their debt will not be written off until 40 years after they have graduated, as opposed to 30 years previously.
The same cohort will also have to begin paying their loans off earlier. While current graduates must start paying their debt back once they start earning £27,295 a year, students on Plan 5 loans will need to start their repayments once they are on a salary of £25,000.
These changes mean that most graduates will make repayments past the Normal Minimum Pension Age of 55, while those who leave university in their mid or late twenties could be left making repayments past the current State Pension age of 66.
This is true, of course. The max normal state pension is £10.6 k per annum. Many get less. This is not selfish riches and because there are so many pensioners (not the fault of us who manage to carry on living) the total is large. This has no relation to the scandalous state of how the young are treated WRT tuition fees, loans and many other things. Most pensioners are parents, grandparents etc and care very much about the young are shafted.Quite a few do quite a bit to help their families out because of this.
And, BTW, if you look at polling sub samples most 65+ do not intend to vote Tory at the next election (about 45 Tory-55 Other split).
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
This country sickens me. The current cohort of pensioners are the most selfish generation this country has ever seen.
Undergraduates who begin their studies this autumn will be the first generation to face repaying their student loans until after they retire, analysis shows.
This year’s freshers will be the first cohort to take out the Government’s new “Plan 5” loans, meaning that their debt will not be written off until 40 years after they have graduated, as opposed to 30 years previously.
The same cohort will also have to begin paying their loans off earlier. While current graduates must start paying their debt back once they start earning £27,295 a year, students on Plan 5 loans will need to start their repayments once they are on a salary of £25,000.
These changes mean that most graduates will make repayments past the Normal Minimum Pension Age of 55, while those who leave university in their mid or late twenties could be left making repayments past the current State Pension age of 66.
Plan 5 loans are one of those things (lower interest rate! lower repayment threshold!) that sound generous but are actually utterly evil in their effect.
Trouble is that explaining why takes more than three words so... BORING!
A few months ago I was hit with this frightening realisation.
The current generation of 30/40 year olds and below will not be able to retire ever as they have to rent their entire life.
Of course they won't. There was a stretch in life expectancy but those 80+% owner occupied houses among older generations will eventually be inherited by somebody.
I do wish people who bang on about pensioners wouldn't whinge about NHS waiting lists in the same breath. Most patients waiting for treatment are pensioners. Most people of working age don't use the NHS from one year to the next.
Well that is inevitable. Universal health care whether state funded, or mandatory insurance is essentially redistributive. The working well pay tax or premiums but rarely need much expense, the poor or chronicly sick and elderly pay less but get more.
Worth noting that the "working well" and "poor, chronically sick and elderly" are not fixed populations, but transition from one group to the other, and even more so when considering family.
Isn't that just the nature of most individuals' life cycle, though? I don't recall using the NHS at all until I reached 60, as one of the 'working well', but obviously by that time I'd paid a lot in to it. In recent years, I have cost the NHS a bit of money. Seems fair to me, and what one would expect.
There is no pot. Indeed, there is a large debt pile instead.
You depend on the next generation being able to provide taxes and people. That ratio is shrinking all the time.
In other news, I'm glad / alarmed / amazed to see our HST 125's, nearly fifty years old, being exported to Mexico for further service. AIUI on a new railway line:
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
I do wish people who bang on about pensioners wouldn't whinge about NHS waiting lists in the same breath. Most patients waiting for treatment are pensioners. Most people of working age don't use the NHS from one year to the next.
Well that is inevitable. Universal health care whether state funded, or mandatory insurance is essentially redistributive. The working well pay tax or premiums but rarely need much expense, the poor or chronicly sick and elderly pay less but get more.
Worth noting that the "working well" and "poor, chronically sick and elderly" are not fixed populations, but transition from one group to the other, and even more so when considering family.
Isn't that just the nature of most individuals' life cycle, though, rather than being 'essentially redistributive'? I don't recall using the NHS at all until I reached 60, as one of the 'working well', but obviously by that time I'd paid a lot in to it. In recent years, I have cost the NHS a bit of money. Seems fair to me, and what one would expect.
There are some very light users amongst the elderly, and some people too sick to ever work, so not everyone transitions from one group to another, but yes as we go through life most of us are light users at one point and heavy users at another.
I do wish people who bang on about pensioners wouldn't whinge about NHS waiting lists in the same breath. Most patients waiting for treatment are pensioners. Most people of working age don't use the NHS from one year to the next.
Well that is inevitable. Universal health care whether state funded, or mandatory insurance is essentially redistributive. The working well pay tax or premiums but rarely need much expense, the poor or chronicly sick and elderly pay less but get more.
Worth noting that the "working well" and "poor, chronically sick and elderly" are not fixed populations, but transition from one group to the other, and even more so when considering family.
Isn't that just the nature of most individuals' life cycle, though? I don't recall using the NHS at all until I reached 60, as one of the 'working well', but obviously by that time I'd paid a lot in to it. In recent years, I have cost the NHS a bit of money. Seems fair to me, and what one would expect.
There is no pot. Indeed, there is a large debt pile instead.
You depend on the next generation being able to provide taxes and people. That ratio is shrinking all the time.
Yes, which is why I think that pensioners who can afford it should be taxed more on their income and/or wealth to finance a better NHS (among other things).
In other news, I'm glad / alarmed / amazed to see our HST 125's, nearly fifty years old, being exported to Mexico for further service. AIUI on a new railway line:
Best trains ever built in this country, better than what's replaced them and good for another 50 years' service.
I agree, But not built to the latest safety standards, as Stonehaven sadly showed. But I fear not much diesel stock would have survived that crash well.
(Incidentally, a friend of mine was on an HST that caught fire near Leicester many moons ago. She is less complementary of them. But AIUI that problem more or less disappeared once they were re-engined.)
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
There is the factor of post-industrial decline in some areas, but also net immigration of older people, often of modest means from England to retire.
I do wish people who bang on about pensioners wouldn't whinge about NHS waiting lists in the same breath. Most patients waiting for treatment are pensioners. Most people of working age don't use the NHS from one year to the next.
Well that is inevitable. Universal health care whether state funded, or mandatory insurance is essentially redistributive. The working well pay tax or premiums but rarely need much expense, the poor or chronicly sick and elderly pay less but get more.
Worth noting that the "working well" and "poor, chronically sick and elderly" are not fixed populations, but transition from one group to the other, and even more so when considering family.
Isn't that just the nature of most individuals' life cycle, though, rather than being 'essentially redistributive'? I don't recall using the NHS at all until I reached 60, as one of the 'working well', but obviously by that time I'd paid a lot in to it. In recent years, I have cost the NHS a bit of money. Seems fair to me, and what one would expect.
There are some very light users amongst the elderly, and some people too sick to ever work, so not everyone transitions from one group to another, but yes as we go through life most of us are light users at one point and heavy users at another.
Of course; I thought I'd made it clear that I was generalising.
Dr. Foxy - Thanks for that pointer to your header. I'll take a serious look at it, later today.
In return, I'll mention two smaller US health systems that have been, shall we say, "troubled" for years, the one run by the Veteran's Administration and the Indian Health Service.
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
There is the factor of post-industrial decline in some areas, but also net immigration of older people, often of modest means from England to retire.
Very true in South Wales, and those retirees from England I know are quite well off
We are in serious danger of becoming an NHS with a small country attached. It is already absorbing an insane proportion of public expenditure and yet it produces ever more absurd figures like these.
Is there anyone well in this country? Anyone at all who is not on a waiting list for something?
It appears not.
70 million minus 8 million suggests 62 million not on the lists. And that assumes no one is on twice.
We are not great at comparing the NHS to other health systems. I’d be interested to know about waiting lists in other comparable countries. If the situation is better elsewhere, does it not suggest the NHS model may need changing? It’s not as simple as just Tory funding too low, surely?
That's the whole UK population, surely, but on the other hand the news was 7.6 (not 8) million for England only.
I'm waiting for the line about the NHS being the third biggest global employer after the PLA and Indian Railways but never mind.
There is a valid point about bringing in more private sector involvement in provision but ultimately we need, for a growing and ageing population, more hospitals, more doctors, more nurses and a better network of care and support for the older population (and the younger too if truth be told).
We need the emphasis on mental health started by the Coaltion under Norman Lamb and supported by some Conservatives to continue and develop. Good mental health is as important as good physical health and the two are related.
We also need much stronger public health education - it's NOT about telling people what to do as much as providing the information from which individuals can make informed lifestyle choices.
Whether that's public, private or a mixed provision I really don't care.
2016 Tory Mayoral candidate, son of billionaire and Referendum Party founder Sir James Goldsmith and former Tory MP for Richmond Park Lord Zac Goldsmith considering defecting to Starmer Labour to work with them on environmental policy in preparation for a likely Labour government
So easy to be first these days! TSE must have his keys taken away!
I've been on holiday for the past week.
So... you go on holiday, and nothing happens ... I mean zip, niento, bugger all, not a thing! Mike pops down to Waitrose ...!
I'm still reeling from paying £9 for a 750 ml bottle of water in London.
And you paid it? Bottled water, rather than tap, is for those with more money than sense at any price.
Comes oot the tap fur nu'hin. Nothing brings out my inner Scotsman quite like being asked to pay for water.
The problem is that, if you have got used to delicious fresh well water, then you will struggle with chlorinated town water.
Our recent trip to Bath was marred by the disgusting tap water. This was a fairly strange experience for a born and bred Londoner, who had fallen ill on a Scout trip to Galway as a teenager because the chlorine was missing from the water (not actually a diagnosis, but whatevs).
Is it acceptable to ask for a drink of the tap water when looking at a house for sale?
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
And why do the Welsh not vote Tory?
They did in the 2009 European elections
That was 14 years ago. I use the present tense. Not the past. I didnt' say "voted".
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
And why do the Welsh not vote Tory?
Good question but maybe like Scotland it is the Celtic nature of the population and especially in the South Wales valleys
Also the conservatives have a very poor leader in Wales
2016 Tory Mayoral candidate, son of billionaire and Referendum Party founder Sir James Goldsmith and former Tory MP for Richmond Park Lord Zac Goldsmith considering defecting to Starmer Labour to work with them on environmental policy in preparation for a likely Labour government
That wouldn't go down well in Labour circles in light of his outrageously unpleasant campaign against Khan when Goldsmith stood for London Mayor in 2016.
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
And why do the Welsh not vote Tory?
Good question but maybe like Scotland it is the Celtic nature of the population and especially in the South Wales valleys
Also the conservatives have a very poor leader in Wales
The Conservatives got their highest voteshare and number of AMs in the Senedd elections ever in 2021 under the leadership of Andrew RT Davies
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
And why do the Welsh not vote Tory?
Good question but maybe like Scotland it is the Celtic nature of the population and especially in the South Wales valleys
Also the conservatives have a very poor leader in Wales
Racially different, eh? Don't believe it myself. Edit: not least because many/most Scots are not 'Celtic' or at least only partly so.
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
And why do the Welsh not vote Tory?
Good question but maybe like Scotland it is the Celtic nature of the population and especially in the South Wales valleys
Also the conservatives have a very poor leader in Wales
The Conservatives got their highest voteshare and number of AMs in the Senedd elections ever in 2021 under the leadership of Andrew RT Davies
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
I wasn't disagreeing, just pointing out that there is a link between NHS spending in England and the funding available to the Welsh Government.
Yes and I understand that and it applies to Scotland, but my concern is for my family and friends who are treated by Wales NHS and in the last 3 months a relative of my son in law had a botched routine operation and contacted sepsis, and died within a couple of weeks of the operation to the distress of his family
I have also learned today that the husband of a neighbour also went in for a routine operation a couple of days ago and the surgeon damaged his bowel and he very ill at present
To me the problem is right across the UK health services and while the English will attack the conservatives for their inability to resolve the issues, we are entitled to attack those in Wales equally responsible which is Wales Labour
A 35 year old GP friend of mine has just had a stroke due to medical negligence by an anaesthetist. That was in Australia.
Complications are not necessarily down to negligence. As the surgical dictum goes " the only way to have no complications is to never operate". Surgery is like any medical care about taking a balance of risk and benefit for treatment vs no treatment.
I don't think England or Wales is systemically worse at misdiagnosis or errors than other countries. International comparison is difficult, but some have tried to do this:
"The countries where hospital incidents are more prone to occur are Latvia (32%), Denmark (29%), and Poland (28%), while the countries where prescribed medication errors are more frequent are Latvia (23%) and Denmark (21%), Estonia and Malta (18% each).
Within the most accurate healthcare providers from Europe, Austria, Germany, and Hungary are having the least numbers of medical errors in hospitals (11%) and the lowest number of medical prescription errors (7%)."
"Annually, almost 12 million American people in need for outpatient medical care services are misdiagnosed, meaning that 1 out of 20 people has not been provided with the correct diagnosis.
Studies show that from the total of 12 million people misdiagnosed, between 10% and 20% are patients that present serious conditions, and 44% out of them have actually types of cancers that are misdiagnosed. The most commonly misdiagnosed are Prostate cancer, Thyroid cancer, and Breast cancer. Moreover, 28% of the misdiagnoses are life-threatening or, even, life-altering and can lead to unnecessary treatments, increased costs, physical and emotional stress, and in worst case scenarios even death."
2016 Tory Mayoral candidate, son of billionaire and Referendum Party founder Sir James Goldsmith and former Tory MP for Richmond Park Lord Zac Goldsmith considering defecting to Starmer Labour to work with them on environmental policy in preparation for a likely Labour government
That wouldn't go down well in Labour circles in light of his outrageously unpleasant campaign against Khan when Goldsmith stood for London Mayor in 2016.
I doubt Starmer cares, he is still angry at Khan and London Labour for running a pro ULEZ campaign with a Camden councillor which lost the Uxbridge by election. Like Blair he will welcome a rich former Tory coming over to Labour even if Corbynites and the hard left are angry about it
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
And why do the Welsh not vote Tory?
Good question but maybe like Scotland it is the Celtic nature of the population and especially in the South Wales valleys
Also the conservatives have a very poor leader in Wales
Racially different, eh? Don't believe it myself. Edit: not least because many/most Scots are not 'Celtic' or at least only partly so.
Though on the other point, I noticed the gentleman has indeed been getting some attention in the news.
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
And why do the Welsh not vote Tory?
Good question but maybe like Scotland it is the Celtic nature of the population and especially in the South Wales valleys
Also the conservatives have a very poor leader in Wales
Racially different, eh? Don't believe it myself. Edit: not least because many/most Scots are not 'Celtic' or at least only partly so.
Though on the other point, I noticed the gentleman has indeed been getting some attention in the news.
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
And why do the Welsh not vote Tory?
Good question but maybe like Scotland it is the Celtic nature of the population and especially in the South Wales valleys
Also the conservatives have a very poor leader in Wales
Racially different, eh? Don't believe it myself. Edit: not least because many/most Scots are not 'Celtic' or at least only partly so.
Though on the other point, I noticed the gentleman has indeed been getting some attention in the news.
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
Is that adjusted for Wales having an older, poorer and more socially deprived population than England? All these, and remoteness, contribute to health care demand.
And who is responsible for that other than decades of labour in power in Wales
And why do the Welsh not vote Tory?
Good question but maybe like Scotland it is the Celtic nature of the population and especially in the South Wales valleys
Also the conservatives have a very poor leader in Wales
The Conservatives got their highest voteshare and number of AMs in the Senedd elections ever in 2021 under the leadership of Andrew RT Davies
He is a terrible leader at present
On electoral results alone RT is the greatest Welsh Conservative leader this century
In other news, I'm glad / alarmed / amazed to see our HST 125's, nearly fifty years old, being exported to Mexico for further service. AIUI on a new railway line:
The NHS is devolved and it is always the English NHS that is criticised, when in truth all the devolved nations are experiencing the same issues albeit Wales is run by Labour and Scotland by the SNP/Greens
Indeed Drakeford indicated yesterday of an overspend of nearly 1 billion in Wales, and suggested cuts will be needed in the Wales NHS and Education, notwithstanding that Wales receives £1.20 per head from the treasury compared to £1 in England
That reads as a desperate attempt to somehow exonerate the Conservatives.
The truth is your party has led the Government for the last thirteen years or more - apart from throwing money at it (allegedly), what have the Conservatives actually done to improve the English NHS?
As an example, in my part of London, we are constantly building new flats and increasing the population but where are the medical services to support the increased population? Where are the new Medical Centres, the new GP surgeries, the additional hospital capacity?
This is where those who argue for an unfettered planning process have it so wrong - they forget housing isn't just about four walls and a roof for someone to live but it's about all the amenities and networks supporting that new property from sewage and drainage via power to transport and medical.
All significant developments should be supported by additional infrastructure paid for and provided by the developer as a condition for granting permission - the current Section 106 arrangements are a sop, we need something with serious financial teeth.
I reject that accusation as my family and friends live here in Wales and have had terrible experiences of our NHS and our health authority are in special measures
How England performs does not affect us, but Wales certainly does and when I read of the failures in England's NHS I only have to look at ours and see the same and even worse issues
The wider point is no political party has the answer to the NHS either in England or the devolved nations
Not quite - if England's performance improves, the amount of money that is allocated to Wales will fall in line with that reduction in spending (or vice versa). You should be grateful that England is doing so badly!
I'm assuming Wales' funding works a bit likes ours in Scotland.
Wales already receives £1.20 in Barnett formula (£1 in England) and has overspent by nearly one billion and even Drakeford announced this week cuts to NHS and Education will be needed
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
I wasn't disagreeing, just pointing out that there is a link between NHS spending in England and the funding available to the Welsh Government.
Yes and I understand that and it applies to Scotland, but my concern is for my family and friends who are treated by Wales NHS and in the last 3 months a relative of my son in law had a botched routine operation and contacted sepsis, and died within a couple of weeks of the operation to the distress of his family
I have also learned today that the husband of a neighbour also went in for a routine operation a couple of days ago and the surgeon damaged his bowel and he very ill at present
To me the problem is right across the UK health services and while the English will attack the conservatives for their inability to resolve the issues, we are entitled to attack those in Wales equally responsible which is Wales Labour
A 35 year old GP friend of mine has just had a stroke due to medical negligence by an anaesthetist. That was in Australia.
Complications are not necessarily down to negligence. As the surgical dictum goes " the only way to have no complications is to never operate". Surgery is like any medical care about taking a balance of risk and benefit for treatment vs no treatment.
I don't think England or Wales is systemically worse at misdiagnosis or errors than other countries. International comparison is difficult, but some have tried to do this:
"The countries where hospital incidents are more prone to occur are Latvia (32%), Denmark (29%), and Poland (28%), while the countries where prescribed medication errors are more frequent are Latvia (23%) and Denmark (21%), Estonia and Malta (18% each).
Within the most accurate healthcare providers from Europe, Austria, Germany, and Hungary are having the least numbers of medical errors in hospitals (11%) and the lowest number of medical prescription errors (7%)."
"Annually, almost 12 million American people in need for outpatient medical care services are misdiagnosed, meaning that 1 out of 20 people has not been provided with the correct diagnosis.
Studies show that from the total of 12 million people misdiagnosed, between 10% and 20% are patients that present serious conditions, and 44% out of them have actually types of cancers that are misdiagnosed. The most commonly misdiagnosed are Prostate cancer, Thyroid cancer, and Breast cancer. Moreover, 28% of the misdiagnoses are life-threatening or, even, life-altering and can lead to unnecessary treatments, increased costs, physical and emotional stress, and in worst case scenarios even death."
Comments
Trouble is that explaining why takes more than three words so... BORING!
The current generation of 30/40 year olds and below will not be able to retire ever as they have to rent their entire life.
Teeth not brilliant. But not spending thousands on them to get them perfect.
"Scientists at Fermilab close in on fifth force of nature
Scientists near Chicago say they may be getting closer to discovering the existence of a new force of nature.
They have found more evidence that sub-atomic particles, called muons, are not behaving in the way predicted by the current theory of sub-atomic physics.
Scientists believe that an unknown force could be acting on the muons.
More data will be needed to confirm these results, but if they are verified, it could mark the beginning of a revolution in physics."
We are not great at comparing the NHS to other health systems. I’d be interested to know about waiting lists in other comparable countries. If the situation is better elsewhere, does it not suggest the NHS model may need changing? It’s not as simple as just Tory funding too low, surely?
Yes the two are interlinked but there are staggering differences between healthy age expectancy.
The statistics are far worse in the US.
One aspect of the income\health link is that the wealthy are more likely to gain from the State Pension just because they tend to live longer.
PSNI chief admits officers anxious and angry at data breach
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-66455475
Good to see the Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said Labour would be open to more private health care providers being involved in health care provision
I'd need therapy.
The problems occur when you pay alot for inferior product.
(Though it sounds like DavidL's experience was exceedingly poor.)
it.
Where have all the decently priced restaurants gone?
There is a valid point about bringing in more private sector involvement in provision but ultimately we need, for a growing and ageing population, more hospitals, more doctors, more nurses and a better network of care and support for the older population (and the younger too if truth be told).
We need the emphasis on mental health started by the Coaltion under Norman Lamb and supported by some Conservatives to continue and develop. Good mental health is as important as good physical health and the two are related.
We also need much stronger public health education - it's NOT about telling people what to do as much as providing the information from which individuals can make informed lifestyle choices.
Whether that's public, private or a mixed provision I really don't care.
Private insurance won't cover chronic conditions, mental health, dementia care, maternity, pre-existing conditions etc, and tends to get rid of potentially expensive customers by jacking up
premiums. Insurance companies sell you an umbrella on a sunny day, and take it back when it rains.
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2018/07/01/three-score-and-ten-has-the-nhs-reached-the-end-of-its-natural-life/
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/uk-state-pension-spend-education-policing-defence-2023-n529t0tch
Nothing brings out my inner Scotsman quite like being asked to pay for water.
And let's not pretend this is recent, Wales NHS has been failing for years and long before the 2019 GE
When people talking about demographic pressure, it's not that there is going to be a huge surge in older people (though there will be a small one as the boomers age and die in the 2030s) - it's that there are so few younger people bringing up the rear to pay for it all.
And it's getting worse - the fertility rate of my generation is insanely low. In Scotland this is a particularly stark issue, as we simply can't attract enough inwards migration.
Worth noting that the "working well" and "poor, chronically sick and elderly" are not fixed populations, but transition from one group to the other, and even more so when considering family.
https://twitter.com/Clinnick1/status/1689677346251395072
Michael Ancram?
Hilary Benn?
Our recent trip to Bath was marred by the disgusting tap water. This was a fairly strange experience for a born and bred Londoner, who had fallen ill on a Scout trip to Galway as a teenager because the chlorine was missing from the water (not actually a diagnosis, but whatevs).
Is it acceptable to ask for a drink of the tap water when looking at a house for sale?
I have also learned today that the husband of a neighbour also went in for a routine operation a couple of days ago and the surgeon damaged his bowel and he very ill at present
To me the problem is right across the UK health services and while the English will attack the conservatives for their inability to resolve the issues, we are entitled to attack those in Wales equally responsible which is Wales Labour
And, BTW, if you look at polling sub samples most 65+ do not intend to vote Tory at the next election (about 45 Tory-55 Other split).
Unless Of course they won't. There was a stretch in life expectancy but those 80+% owner occupied houses among older generations will eventually be inherited by somebody.
You depend on the next generation being able to provide taxes and people. That ratio is shrinking all the time.
The place is optimised to extract moolah from status obsessed northerners and other foreigners. No one I know goes to the Ritz for goodness sakes!
(Incidentally, a friend of mine was on an HST that caught fire near Leicester many moons ago. She is less complementary of them. But AIUI that problem more or less disappeared once they were re-engined.)
In return, I'll mention two smaller US health systems that have been, shall we say, "troubled" for years, the one run by the Veteran's Administration and the Indian Health Service.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Veterans_Affairs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Health_Service
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/zac-goldsmith-defection-turncoat-labour-government-b2390892.html
Also the conservatives have a very poor leader in Wales
Edit - £100 for Hanky Panky in the Ritz though.
https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/network-rail-makes-a-splash-with-free-drinking-water-for-passengers-at-london-waterloo
Complications are not necessarily down to negligence. As the surgical dictum goes " the only way to have no complications is to never operate". Surgery is like any medical care about taking a balance of risk and benefit for treatment vs no treatment.
I don't think England or Wales is systemically worse at misdiagnosis or errors than other countries. International comparison is difficult, but some have tried to do this:
"The countries where hospital incidents are more prone to occur are Latvia (32%), Denmark (29%), and Poland (28%), while the countries where prescribed medication errors are more frequent are Latvia (23%) and Denmark (21%), Estonia and Malta (18% each).
Within the most accurate healthcare providers from Europe, Austria, Germany, and Hungary are having the least numbers of medical errors in hospitals (11%) and the lowest number of medical prescription errors (7%)."
"Annually, almost 12 million American people in need for outpatient medical care services are misdiagnosed, meaning that 1 out of 20 people has not been provided with the correct diagnosis.
Studies show that from the total of 12 million people misdiagnosed, between 10% and 20% are patients that present serious conditions, and 44% out of them have actually types of cancers that are misdiagnosed. The most commonly misdiagnosed are Prostate cancer, Thyroid cancer, and Breast cancer. Moreover, 28% of the misdiagnoses are life-threatening or, even, life-altering and can lead to unnecessary treatments, increased costs, physical and emotional stress, and in worst case scenarios even death."
https://icloudhospital.com/articles/global-misdiagnosis-insides-medical-error-statistics-by-countries
Out of the 1,600 or so houses I deliver to in Marlborough there are two active subscribers
They're both young men. One of them is called Kane
The other, I kid you fucking not, is called Abel
I tell people this as one of my markers of how much I like them
If you're not struck by the unlikeliness and beauty of this coincidence, then you need rewiring
BBC News - Betsi Cadwaladr: NHS health board back in special measures
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-64788234