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Showing posts with label NHS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NHS. Show all posts
Barry Murray writing in Socialist Voice 9-October-2024.



“Crumbling to the point of crisis”: so reads the headline from the Irish News of 16th April 2024, referring to the dire state of our GP medical services and the NHS in general. What should have been added to the headline were the words “by design”.

Those of us who live here; and are activists here, know all about it. It doesn’t matter now if you are seriously ill, it doesn’t matter if you have a sick screaming child and it doesn’t matter if you are old and ill, you will wait for days phoning for an appointment to hopefully see a doctor, which will end up being a nurse practitioner.

“No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.” – Aneuran Bevin

Last year (2023) approximately 10% of NHS operations were carried out by private companies. That’s up from a 3% figure in 2011, according to the Irish News. That excludes all the private companies now employed to do cleaning, repairs and maintenance and now, increasingly, ambulance services. This is not to mention the privatisation of hospital buildings themselves.

Doctors are scarce, very scarce, in the north of Ireland, and deliberately so. Phoning the local Health Centre two hundred times just to get an appointment, is not uncommon. But even before you are granted the “honour” of an appointment or a visit to the practitioner, you will first be thoroughly screened by a receptionist – yes, a receptionist – to establish if you are really ill or meet some unspecified criteria. Yes, this is a supposedly “developed” part of the world, and yet the north of Ireland and Britain are now experiencing the consequences of the same “tactically devastated” health service, which really began under Thatcher.

Continue reading @ Socialist Voice.

There’s Profit In Wrecking The NHS

BAM 🔨 This week it was reported that 350 people were on trolleys in accident and emergency departments in Northern Ireland waiting for a hospital bed. Written by Jonathan Traynor. Recommended by Christopher Owens.

When one sees elderly patients waiting for 36 hours, when one sees staff in casualty juggling multiple patient conditions, when one sees ward staff desperately free up space it is clear that the health and care sector is broken.

The number of workers is below what it should be. The number of hospital beds is too low. As to the residential and nursing homes there are too few.

What this means is that Northern Ireland can no longer have a health and social care sector that caters for all of the population.

For decades it has been clear that there is an aging population. The demographics are clear, have been clear for all professionals and casual observers alike. It is almost right years since Professor Rafael Bengoa published the report Systems not Structures. The report pointed to a series of reforms and ways forward.

A quick glance at the Department of Health reporting on progress reveals that there are transformation boards, groups, conferences and such like.

Continue reading @ BAM.

Health Service Broken – Is It Beyond Repair?

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ On Wednesday 5th July the UK NHS will be seventy-five years old. 

Founded in 1948 by the labour government of Clement Atlee it was designed to give health care ‘free at the point of need’ irrespective of a person’s income or personal wealth. A great idea spearheaded by the Welsh firebrand Aneurin Bevan under the slogan ‘never again’ meaning ‘never again’ will a person’s right to health care depend on how much money they had it their wallet. Now, seventy-five years on where is the National Health Service going under the misrule of capitalism and their various lackeys in government? 

Originally the service was to be funded by general taxation, chiefly income tax, and under the post war political consensus it ran like a well-oiled machine. So, what went wrong? In today’s world of capitalist greed and rising unemployment, in real terms, it does not take the brains of a mathematical genius to work out that with fewer people working the income tax pot does not have as much in it for this funding. The rich and powerful won’t pay, they all have private health care, often using NHS consultants and doctors which should be stopped. These people, the owners of the means of production, don’t give a fuck for anybody else so long as their class continue to rule! 

So, what is the answer? It is my view that various British Governments are trying to privatise the NHS while, at the same time, telling people the NHS is ‘safe in our hands’ which of course it evidently is not. Despite their hot air and filibustering various governments since the 1960s have presided over the cuts in the NHS. Ironically the government of Harold Wilson instituted the first round of ‘rationalisation’ in his first administration in 1964. This was not Wilsons choice as he soon found out who the real government, irrespective of which political party occupy the office, were and are. The money men and women, the capitalist class.

During the 1960s the first cracks appeared in the postwar political consensus in Britain. The six counties did not have this as they were governed, or misgoverned, by the Unionist party. With these cracks came cuts to public services including the NHS. Whether the six counties were governed by the unionists or not their funding came from the UK government in London so the cuts in the NHS affected them as well. Even Terence O’Neil voiced moderate concern about lack of funding, however I’m deviating from the main point here. The ruling classes no longer needed a large healthy workforce (wage slaves) and therefore perceived no real need for a fully funded NHS as technology could do much of the work once carried out by people. Today that technology is far more advanced than back in the 1960s as the quality of health care has deteriorated!

The staff in the NHS are not paid adequately for the work and service they provide, similar to the HSE in the 26 counties. For the first time in its 104 year history the Nurses union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) have taken, as a last resort and through desperation, strike action. This mode of action should tell us all something. The nursing profession do not go on strike for a laugh but because they have been pushed as far as they can be. Now junior doctors are taking industrial action and will soon be joined by senior doctors, the Consultants. They will provide emergency cover because that is the kind of people they are, caring, but they have to make a stance over this issue.

The RCN General Secretary, Patricia Cullen, has asked many times for talks over this year’s pay with government and each time she has been, quite frankly, insulted. British Health Secretary Steve Barclay keeps repeating in parrot fashion it is ‘not the job of government to get involved in management union pay talks.’ Well, what the fuck is the job of a Secretary of State for Health? This British Government appear to have washed their hands on the NHS but for what reason if this is the case, Privatisation? More and more advertising space is being given to private health companies like Bupa, Axa, Allianz, General Medical and many others as the landscape of the UKs health insurance is constantly evolving to respond to customer’s demand. This undermines the NHS which may well become a poor person’s safety net at best. As the maxim goes; ‘if health is something money can buy, then the rich will live and the poor will die’. Unfortunately, the Labour opposition are offering no radical alternative.

Here in the 26-Counties we have no National Health Service as such but we do have excellent doctors and nurses. Unfortunately, we do not have enough of them and the management of the HSE (Health Service Executive) is barely fit for purpose. Nurses are leaving in their droves as countries such as the USA and Australia offer far better packages in wages and working conditions. In the UK, NHS staff are joining this exodus! How much longer are people going to tolerate their health service not providing a service? The NHS is still ahead in terms of provision of the HSE but the gap is narrowing. This is not because the HSE is improving, it certainly is not, but the result of the NHS deteriorating. In the 26-Counties we have Voluntary Health Insurance (VHI) which is to all intents and purposes private health care and the UK appear hell bent on following suit. The difference in quality of care between private and public care in the UK is huge. The NHS was formed on the principle of ‘never again’ meaning ‘never again’ will a person’s standard of health care depend on how much money they have, ‘never again’ will money be able to buy life, but unfortunately that is now what has evolved! Aneurin Bevan must be turning in his grave!!

Today in Britain 15,000 people are in hospital beds who do not need to be. Why? Because there is a lack of care in the community. More staff are needed in this department just the same as staff are needed in hospitals. Much community care is managed by private companies who exist for profit and profit only. With less staff to provide a service working longer hours for shit pay there is little wonder a lack of community care exists. All care, hospital, GPs and community should be under the umbrella of a fully funded and fully staffed National Health Service. All private health care should be taken over by the government and incorporated into the NHS. On Sunday 2nd July David from the six counties texted Laura Kuenssberg on the Sunday Morning Politics Show to say;

I would never have seen the light of day if it was not for the excellent care my mother received from the NHS back in 1951. We must preserve the NHS even if this means increasing taxation.

Well said David,  I couldn’t agree more and remember back in 1951 full employment and therefore larger income tax levels were the commitment of government under the post war political consensus. This is not the case today. The NHS needs a steady flow of cash not occasional lump sums, albeit large amounts, and general taxation always was the cornerstone of funding, much of this funding already comes from private concerns. Instead, the UK government are hell bent on tax cuts especially for the rich and the Labour opposition under Keir Starmer are little different. These tax cuts mean less money for public services including the already underfunded NHS. 

The NHS does still offer treatment ‘free at the point of need’ but less services are covered. Already patients have to pay for treatment of certain kinds which were once covered by the ‘free at the point of need’ service. So, where now for the NHS? Further evidence of the government's - all British Governments - relentless pursuit towards privatisation of the NHS can be found in the 2017 Naylor report for raising funds for the NHS. In this report Sir Robert Naylor recommends the NHS, in conjunction with private companies will be forced to sell off property for a pittance, old obsolete hospitals for example to these private concerns who will renovate them and use them as private hospitals for profit, further undermining the NHS. Sir Robert claimed this would raise £10 billion for the NHS, which it may well have done. What would have been wrong with the government renovating these old hospitals, not all disused, raising taxes to fund them, and giving them back to the NHS? Why do we keep constantly hearing of ‘tax cuts’ which undermines even further NHS funding? Why do private companies have to have the buildings, whether the NHS wish to sell them or not? Simple, it is another step towards the ultimate privatisation of the health service in the UK! 

The NHS will become at best a poor person’s safety net in decades to come. The Naylor recommendations were endorsed by then Prime Minister, Theresa May. Needless to say, the contents of the Naylor report were not common knowledge. When the NHS was formed back in 1948 it had a bed capacity of around 400,000 for a smaller population, the journalist John Pilger did an excellent review of the ‘governments war on the NHS’. Today it has less than a quarter of that number for a far larger population, all the slack is taken up by private health care for those who can afford. 

‘What now for the NHS’? Work it out, my guess despite all the fancy talk about the ‘NHS being safe in our hands’ - a term first coined by compulsive liar, Margaret Thatcher - all the evidence suggests the opposite!!
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Where Now For the NHS?

Caoimhin O’Muraile ✒ As we are all acutely aware over the last year and longer a terrible pandemic has infected mother earth.
 
COVID-19, or SARS – COV 2, reportedly began in China and spread its deadly wings outwards taking less than three months to cover the planet.

In the twenty-six counties the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom which, for now, covers the six-counties have constantly told us how well these services have done in coping with the crisis. 

The staff of both agencies have done remarkably well under very dangerous, life threatening conditions leading to public rounds of applause for the staff working in both services and no sane thinking person could deny this gesture of respect for these employees. However, no rounds of applause can compensate for a pay increase, which was/is deserved even before this pandemic, yet the impression I get [cynically I admit] is perhaps when/if this is all over and the health unions approach the employers for a substantial pay increase, they may be told – words to the effect of; you have had a round of applause, what more do you want, could this happen? Let’s hope I am wrong. 

In the twenty-six counties, some time prior to the pandemic there was a moratorium on nursing recruitment and budget shortages which affected (affects) the efficiency of the health service. Hospitals could not employ more nurses because they had not the budget to do so. In London, according to the journalist, John Pilger, a reliable source, the NHS carried out a dummy run back in 2016 of how they would shape up in the event of such a pandemic. The failings within the NHS were highlighted, shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was apparent, bed shortages, staffing levels all came to the fore, yet nothing was done to rectify these deficiencies. 

At its formation back in 1948 the NHS had a bed capacity of 400,000 – thereabouts – today, for a larger population, that capacity is around the 130,000, possibly less! Various governments dating back to the sixties have implemented cut backs and will continue to do so in the UK once this present crisis is under control. Look at the amount of private health care companies now advertising their services on British television, Nuffield, Babylon, Spire Health Care, Layla Health Care to name only a few all claiming to be assisting the NHS. Perhaps the word assisting should be changed to “replacing” the NHS!

So, have the two health services coped? No, they have not! They have effectively managed one virus, COVID-19. If a person was/is a cancer patient, a renal patient, a liver patient somebody who suffers cardiac problems and many other serious illnesses they have been neglected. People have died of cancer for want of needing treatment and could not get it simply because everything has been thrown at COVID-19. This, by any definition is not coping - a patient suffering other illnesses have more chance of finding rocking horse shit on a beach than getting an appointment with their consultant! The truth is both services have not coped due to staffing levels, which in all probability will continue to be cut back on, a shortage of beds and equipment which, in the case of the NHS there are no excuses they knew their shortcomings and still did nothing to rectify them.

In the twenty-six counties Sinn Fein, if they ever get into government are pledged to the introduction of a fully funded, single tiered nationalised health system with treatment free at the point of need. It is to be modelled on the British variant introduced by the Labour Government of Clement Attlee in 1948 and was funded from general taxation. This was at a time when government policy was aimed at full employment so taxes were coming in and Keynesian economic policies which benefited the nationalised industries, including the NHS were government, Labour and Conservative, policy. Full employment is a major factor in funding such a service. 

Sinn Fein may have their own ideas as to how this service should be funded and they assure us it has all being fully costed. However, in the UK today much of the NHS funding comes from private enterprise, which raises the question; is it any longer a truly National Health Service? Yes, treatment is generally free at the point of need, a factor which is slowly being eroded, and visiting a GP is still free. The thing about this is, treatment is not free as such because people have already paid for it through taxation. Nevertheless, the NHS is still, though a shadow of its original self, a fine service at least for the time being! Sinn Fein must look at the NHS and study not the areas of brilliance and the government progressive policies of the Attlee administration, but the flaws therein which have evolved thereafter, partly due to the door being left ajar to allow such flaws to be exploited by private companies. 

If or when Sinn Fein become the leading party of government in the twenty-six counties, and assuming their policy of launching a single tiered nationalised health service is still in place [difficult to predict with them, what happened to the 32 county-socialist-republic?] they should look at the mistakes, if that is what they were, of the Atlee Government. 

The first error was not forcing GPs into becoming employees of the new NHS. GPs resisted the new health service with a vengeance, as I am sure they will here, and the then Health Minister, Aneurin Bevan, against his better judgement and personal beliefs came to a compromise with the GPs. General Practitioners were not to become employees of the NHS but rather independent contractors to the service, they would be paid so much per patient by the NHS in return for treatment for all free at the point of need. This potentially allowed privatisation to come in later on a larger scale as the GPs were already private concerns. It set a precedent. This was part of the settlement in 1948 when the NHS was established. Today, NHS England and Wales, Scotland and the six-counties differ slightly but still offer treatment free at the point of need, is responsible for paying practices for their services. GP practices are paid on the basis of the number of patients on their list, £152 per patient at the moment.

Consultants working for the NHS are also free to work in a private practice alongside their NHS work which obviously may and does lead to a conflict of interests. More money can be made through private consultations, despite the rules stating categorically there must be no conflict of interests between NHS and private work. This also happens in the twenty-six counties, as revealed on an RTE documentary some time ago, where consultants were doing private work at the expense of their HSE responsibilities.

If Sinn Fein ever find themselves in a position to establish a fully funded, single tiered nationalised health service they must take precautions against this sort of thing happening, otherwise the entire project could be undermined. One way would be to force by diktat GPs to surrender their private practices and come under the new health service umbrella. They would become state employees and no longer be able to charge non-medical card patients. In fact such items as medical cards would no longer be needed under a truly “free at the point of need” service. They would be paid a wage, a decent wage, and the job would come with a superannuated index linked pension in line with other public employees.

This may be a little dictatorial for the now non-revolutionary Sinn Fein so they may wish to take the softly approach, giving GPs the option of coming into the new system, while still being allowed a limited latitude to do private work providing their commitments to the public health service are fulfilled. However, such an approach is open to abuse, as the documentary on RTE showed. The next measure they could take is to train up a new generation of doctors who wish to become GPs making them all state employees, with a pension and a surgery provided by the state. Charging patients would be illegal and treatment “free at the point of need” would become the order of things. 

The private business GPs would have no patients, apart from the very wealthy, and eventually would die a death. After all who would go to a GP and pay money they could perhaps not afford, when they could attend a state employed equally good, and younger, GP and receive treatment free? The problem with the last option is, it takes years to train a Doctor so some form of legislation, perhaps in the “national interest” might have to come into force. Perhaps the banning of private health care could be considered, thus making the GPs come into the fold. Distasteful as these may be, a Sinn Fein Government or any other party committed to a single tiered public health service must consider.

Another area which must come under the umbrella is that of the pharmaceutical companies. In order to stop the conglomerates undermining the health service they must be taken out of private hands. At the moment these companies charge what the hell they like for medicines, often the prices are ridiculously high. That must stop, and the only way to do that is by putting these companies under government control. The high street Pharmacies must also be looked at, particularly the larger ones which have chains of shops, Boots for example is there a need to put them under government control? Or perhaps a policy of price and profit control could be the answer. The point I am trying to make is no section of health care must be allowed to undermine the service by personal greed. All dental and optical care must also come under the umbrella of the new service.

Before the outbreak of this pandemic the British Government commissioned the Naylor Report. This was an independent report by Sir Robert Naylor (March 2017) for the Secretary of State for Health. The object was/is “to raise funds so that new models of NHS care can be put into practice through forty-four Sustainability and Transformation Plans.” The report sites underinvestment, always the case when something is to be privatised, run the industry down making it inefficient and uneconomical. The report recommendation, which was endorsed by then British PM Theresa May, is to raise money through: “NHS property disposals, private capital investment in primary care and allocations from the treasury.”

In lay terms this means the Naylor Report will compel the NHS to sell land and property, old disused hospitals etc, in conjunction with private companies who will put up money to “maximise the value of the estate and share in any profit made.” The clue is in the latter, “share in any profit made”. Should the NHS Trusts “not commit to ‘maximise’ property disposals then they ‘would not be eligible to access public capital funding.” Research by the British Labour Party revealed much of this property still in clinical use is “on the list to be sold off.” 

This means NHS hospitals still fully functional will be sold off to private companies. The Naylor Report also wants private concerns to construct and maintain “primary care facilities and charge the NHS rent on those facilities!” This is a far cry from what was intended back in 1948 and is a backward step towards pre-World War Two universal private health care in the UK. What, for example under the Naylor Report, is to stop a private company buying up at a very low cost an obsolete hospital, renovating it and opening up again as a private hospital? Nothing says they cannot do this. Would it not be better, if governments are committed to the NHS, as they continually mislead people into believing they are, to put money into such hospitals and reopen them as NHS institutions instead of allowing private companies to move in and profit out of people’s ill health?

In the UK, and because the NHS has always been a mixture of public and private provision, there has always been a way in for the private sector to take over. In the days of the post-war consensus this was not an immediate problem because both major parties of government, Labour and Conservative, were committed to the NHS. This changed in 1979 with the election of the right-wing anti-consensus government of Margaret Thatcher. For the first time since its formation the NHS came under overall serious threat, and still is. To prevent this happening in the twenty-six counties Acts of the Oireachtatas, then by popular vote of the population added to the constitution should happen safeguarding the new nationalised single-tiered publicly funded health service from any future government changes. This way it would, in future be unconstitutional for any right-win Fine Gael or Fianna Fail Government to reverse the health service back into private hands.

For many years the HSE lagged behind the NHS in quality and delivery of care to patients, which does not mean the doctors and nurses in the NHS were/are better at their jobs than those in the HSE. It simply means the NHS due to the structures of a publicly funded service is better equipped to facilitate the staff to carry out their duties. This is still the case though the gap is narrowing but not because the HSE is improving, but moreover the NHS is deteriorating. Even while the pandemic has been ravaging the planet further cuts in the NHS are no doubt in the pipeline. The NHS has been run down by various British Governments since the sixties and accelerated after 1979 to suit the ever-changing needs of British capitalism, now part of the huge global capitalist picture. Perhaps when the unionists in the six-counties hold up the NHS as a shining example against Irish unification people should remember the NHS, if this trajectory is continued may not be around, certainly in its present form, for many more years.

Should Sinn Fein ever be in a position to implement their policy to replace the present health system with a publicly funded [through progressive taxation] health service they must be aware of the mistakes the Attlee Government, if mistakes be what they were, leaving the door ajar for future privatisation of their “jewel in the crown” the NHS. The Atlee Government in the UK had the Second World War as a background to implement their moderate socialist agenda, including the NHS. The politics of Britain [the North of Ireland was different] evolved into the “post war political consensus” meaning both parties, Labour and Conservative, were committed to the moderate nationalisation programme and the NHS. 

The only political consensus in the twenty-six counties is that of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail conspiring together to keep Sinn Fein out of government and if this successfully continues the Irish National Health Service that party envisages will never come to pass. Perhaps looking back at the flaws in the British model, and with the gift of hindsight, Sinn Fein should look at the Cuban model of health care, or perhaps a mixture of both. The Cuban way would require much restructuring of the economy and the means of production from private to state ownership, which might mean Sinn Fein bringing about the thirty-two-county socialist republic they once promised! 

In order to fund a public health service, the economy would have to undergo some changes. No longer could the so-called free market be allowed to dictate the direction the economy takes, much more government intervention would be required to facilitate the health service and, therefore, people’s quality of health. Either way if health care provision is going to improve in the twenty-six counties some sort of nationalised, single tiered health service is required. Will Sinn Fein bring this about or, like the 32 county socialist republic, will the idea like chaff in the wind, just disappear?


Caoimhin O’Muraile is a Dublin 
based Marxist and author. 

The HSE + NHS Have Coped? SF Plans For A Nationalised Health Service For 26 Counties!

Ian Major with some thoughts from his Covid bed.

Citizens of the UK have enjoyed the benefits of the Welfare State for generations. As I lay in bed and reflected on the care I was receiving from the hospital staff, the drugs being supplied, the excellent meals, I was so grateful that I did not have to pay for that directly. 

My taxes and National Insurance contributions over my working life were my part in making a free National Health Service possible. My fellow-citizens paid their part too. Some of us more than others, as our incomes differed, yet all get the same access.

Some people, good brethren among them, look on State Welfare as if it is Socialism. They go to the root of public welfare, the authority and mandate of the State, and insist that the State goes beyond its mandate when it intervenes to supply the needs of its citizens. The only legitimate role they see for the State is to defend the nation from foreign aggression and from criminality at home. Exactly where they draw the line on State intervention may differ – I reckon many will be happy for the State to employ fire-fighters as well as policemen. But here I will make the case for welfare as opposed to their minimalist understanding of the State's role in governance of the nation.

The mandate given to the State by God is clearly stated in several Scripture passages. The most famous is that given in Paul's letter to the Romans:
 
Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. 4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. 5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
 
Peter also addresses the issue of the Christian and the State:
 
1 Peter 2:13 Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, 14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— 16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. 17 Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
 
Do these texts limit the State to restraining criminality internally and military defence toward external foes? Not at all.

They tell us that the State is ordained to not only defend us from criminals and foreign foes, but to be for our good; to not only punish the wicked but to praise those who do good.

In addition to that, the role of the State is revealed in the rest of Scripture to be pastoral; the king is appointed to care for his people as a shepherd cares for his sheep.
 
2 Samuel 5:2 Also, in time past, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them in; and the LORD said to you, ‘You shall shepherd My people Israel, and be ruler over Israel.’ ”

Isaiah 44:28 Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd,
And he shall perform all My pleasure,
Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,”
And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” ’

Jeremiah 25:35 And the shepherds will have no way to flee,
Nor the leaders of the flock to escape.

Ezekiel 34:10 Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them.”

Nahum 3:18 Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria;
Your nobles rest in the dust.
Your people are scattered on the mountains,
And no one gathers them.

Matthew 2:6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
 
The shepherd not only defends the sheep from predators, he leads them to good pasture, and treats their sickness and injuries. The welfare of the flock is his mandate.

Same for those whom God has appointed rulers over a nation. God will require an accounting for that office. Lazy or abusive rulers will answer for it in the day of Judgment.

So it is not right that the State sits on its hands and expects each citizen to look after his/her own welfare, no matter their resources and circumstances. It is perfectly within the State’s duties to tax everyone to ensure sufficient resources will be available for those in need. Medical care, basic food and shelter. No one should have to live on the streets or go hungry, or suffer without medical care.

Not that the State has to be directly involved in operating a NHS – it would be sufficient for them to require everyone to enter a private medical insurance scheme of the person's choice. As long as the State makes sure it works for all.

Nor is the State obliged to aid those who are able to work but refuse to. The Scripture gives the rule : Those who will not work, should not eat:
 
2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. 11 For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies.
 
I thank God for the NHS the governments of the UK set up and continue to fund. Yes, it could be organized and funded a lot better, but it is a blessing even in its neglected state.

⏭Ian Major grew up a heathen Protestant, was converted at 17. He lives out his Evangelical faith as a Baptist.  

Welfare Is Not Socialism

Davy Clinton writes of his Boxing Day experience in a Belfast hospital where abusive drunks made life difficult for battling NHS staff,

I had occasion today to spend most of Boxing Day in the Emergency Department of the RVH in Belfast. If I had admiration for NHS staff before landing there it has increased ten fold tonight. Apart from the excellent medical treatment given by all the staff from porters through to consultants I saw them display patience over and beyond what should be expected of any worker. 

At 11am there were men and women in the waiting area, drunk and drugged, causing a disturbance that a pub doorman wouldn't put up with. If they wore masks at all - and some of them didn't - they wore them around their chins. One half wit who was in his 40s and should have known better marched in and up ahead of others in a queue waiting to give details to the receptionist. Did he see the queue? Did he care? I'm not sure if he even knew where he was. Marymo put him right though ... in a more polite way than I may have, and told him the queue was for everyone. In fairness to him and probably in response to the bake on her he turned and joined the queue. Drunk or drugged I do not know but he certainly didn't know if it were Christmas or Easter. 

There were several others like him though all they did was make a lot of noise and hop from chair to chair. If I have any complaints today it's not against medical or administrative staff but that management has no security there.

Even after triage and move to another part of the hospital there were enough balloons there for an 18th birthday party and all intent on creating as much mayhem as they could for staff and other patients. I saw one man in his late 70s terrified of one screaming girl demanding her "juice" that she brought in. The most pleasant young nurse - they are all young to me - calmingly repeated over and over that the doctor had given instructions that she was to be given no liquids. Jeesis, you'd have thought the nurse was cutting off her oxygen the way she got on about her "juice". Obviously, more in her "juice" than "juice".

And so it went on for hours  - one nurse telling me it would only get worse as the day went on. Are these people for real - do they have no morals, no decency? This has nothing to do with Covid.. These are the same type of people who were doing this last year and who will be doing it when Covid is but a distant memory.

I would be demented if my wife or daughter had to work in that environment. I was older than all the staff I saw and met today. Although they were all wonderful I did not see one of their faces but each and everyone of them made me feel as if I was the only one in that department. Wonderful people. Unlike the other scumbags in that department today.

⏩Davy Clinton is a life long Glasgow Celtic supporter. 

Juice Merchants ➖ What NHS Staff Put Up With

Mick Hall is reluctant to endorse the weekly applause for the NHS.

I feel a little uneasy about this weekly clapping. 

It's not that the majority of people clapping aren't genuine, I'm sure they are. But rather than it being a spontaneous outburst of thanks to NHS, care workers and others in the front line, it's turned into an orchestrated campaign with political ring masters at the centre. 


That the ringmasters are the very people who over the last ten years cut the NHS to the bone, and today have left NHS and care workers short of PPE are not the type of company I wish to keep. Watching them on TV in Downing Street, Whitehall and outside their homes, clapping the NHS turns my stomach. I cannot help feeling these wretches are attempting to rewrite history, to wipe their slate clean.

Is the slogan 'Clap for the NHS' much different from 'Get Brexit Done'? 

Were they both manufactured in the same reactionary sinkhole?

I don't wish to rerun Brexit - for me it's done. But with the fickle and servile nature of the British MSM and the nudge-nudge effect it has on public opinion I do worry that today's hero's may become tomorrow's victims.

Does any rational non-Tory truly believe the Conservative government's wish to privatise the NHS by stealth is no longer on their long term agenda?

⏩ Mick Hall is a veteran Left Wing activist and trade unionist.

Clapping

Prior to the onset of Covid-19, writing in the Guardian a junior doctor working at Worcestershire Royal hospital lashed Boris Johnson over the loss of life as result of the runnning down of the NHS.  
  By Andrew Meyerson

The prime minister’s neglect of the NHS has resulted in too many tragedies. If he were a doctor, he would be struck off. 

Dear Boris Johnson,

In medicine – unlike politics, where anything seems to go these days – we have situations called “never events”. These are instances that occur when a patient is seriously harmed in spite of all the protocols and protective measures to prevent this happening. “Never events” are such serious, manmade disasters that most clinicians involved in them will bear the burden of such tragic events for the rest of their careers. You are not fit to lecture us any more about what we need in our NHS hospitals

Like many junior doctors who have worked in overwhelmed and understaffed A&E departments, I’ve seen things happen as a result of the overstretched conditions that I believe should be classed as “never events”.

Since 2016, nearly 5,500 patients have died in England alone as a direct result of having waited too long to be admitted to hospital. To put that in perspective, that’s nearly twice the number of people killed in terror attacks in the UK since 1970. We should be outraged.

Continue reading @ the Guardian.

Johnson Has Contributed To Thousands Of Deaths

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