Re: Privatisation of NHS hospitals begins : Mon Jan 14, 2013 10:59 am  

McLaren_Field wrote:

a surgeon who works four days a week in one hospital and moonlights for one day a week in another - which one would you go for ?

Yep, not to mention that private hospitals generally don't have A&E departments and so don't have emergency doctors or equipment. If anything goes wrong in your surgery you have to be transported to your nearest A&E.

Re: Privatisation of NHS hospitals begins : Mon Jan 14, 2013 11:08 am  

Kosh wrote:

Just refuse to pay. That's what I did when Warwick Hospital tried to charge me for my treatment following an RTA a few years ago. Eventually they gave up asking.

I've done a similar thing though not actually on purpose. I recieved a bill for meds from A&E following my RTA. They wanted 7 quid for a handful of ibuprofen. They chased it for a few months then stopped. Now I work for the same trust lol.
I have actually meant to pay t , but just kept forgetting.

Re: Privatisation of NHS hospitals begins : Mon Jan 14, 2013 11:12 am  

Him wrote:

Yep, not to mention that private hospitals generally don't have A&E departments and so don't have emergency doctors or equipment. If anything goes wrong in your surgery you have to be transported to your nearest A&E.

Lets also not forget when things really go tits up ( and I've had experience of this many times) they quickly get you transferred to an NHS ICU.
Icu is not a profitable method of health care for private firms so they let the tax payer pay the thousands, and some time hundreds of thousands of pounds it takes to rectify their mistakes.

Re: Privatisation of NHS hospitals begins : Mon Jan 14, 2013 11:15 am  

... and in today' s news, private providers may be given tax breaks to ' level the playing field'.

But it' s not privatisation, perish the thought, no ... we can' t have the profits of private health providers being subject to tax, can we? I mean,they might not be able to afford to contribute to Tories' election expenses then and that would never do.

Re: Privatisation of NHS hospitals begins : Mon Jan 14, 2013 11:19 am  

gulfcoast_highwayman wrote: More news. Tax breaks for private NHS providers. Not only that, unlike the NHS, the private proividers are not subject to FOI, claiming commercial sensitivity. So basically we'll know feckall about what they're getting up to

gulfcoast_highwayman wrote: More news. Tax breaks for private NHS providers. Not only that, unlike the NHS, the private proividers are not subject to FOI, claiming commercial sensitivity. So basically we'll know feckall about what they're getting up to

Re: Privatisation of NHS hospitals begins : Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:17 pm  

El Barbudo wrote:

... and in today' s news, private providers may be given tax breaks to ' level the playing field'.

But it' s not privatisation, perish the thought, no ... we can' t have the profits of private health providers being subject to tax, can we? I mean,they might not be able to afford to contribute to Tories' election expenses then and that would never do.

it's not actually todays news though

Street, who produced a report for the then Labour-run Department of Health in 2008 that looked at the issue and rejected any tax breaks

i find this odd, andy burnham is seemingly all over the media decrying the great nhs sell off by the coalition, yet on his watch these nasty, nasty private healthcare companies which kill and maim at will were asking for exactly the same thing despite them having no say whatsoever in the nhs at that point. no siree. it seems the tories main problem is the labour party get there first.
good to see the moral outrage cranked up to 11.

Re: Privatisation of NHS hospitals begins : Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:29 pm  

samwire wrote:

it's not actually todays news though
i find this odd, andy burnham is seemingly all over the media decrying the great nhs sell off by the coalition, yet on his watch these nasty, nasty private healthcare companies which kill and maim at will were asking for exactly the same thing despite them having no say whatsoever in the nhs at that point. no siree. it seems the tories main problem is the labour party get there first.
good to see the moral outrage cranked up to 11.

Well done for spectacularly failing to see the point.

Re: Privatisation of NHS hospitals begins : Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:43 pm  

samwire wrote:

it's not actually todays news though
i find this odd, andy burnham is seemingly all over the media decrying the great nhs sell off by the coalition, yet on his watch these nasty, nasty private healthcare companies which kill and maim at will were asking for exactly the same thing despite them having no say whatsoever in the nhs at that point. no siree. it seems the tories main problem is the labour party get there first.
good to see the moral outrage cranked up to 11.

It's today' s news in the sense that it' s in today' s papers.

Whilst the private providers may have wanted the same under the previous government, they didn't get it ... but now it looks as though they will.
That is a) why it's news and b) why your claim that Labour got there first is disingenuous rubbish.

Re: Privatisation of NHS hospitals begins : Mon Jan 14, 2013 1:12 pm  

The plan to spend £195m to get £19.5m savings. Lewisham – being punished by having its maternity and A&E services closed in order to cope with PFI debt at hospitals in an entirely different trust (ie debt not caused by Lewisham). It's entirely coincidental that Lewisham is a Labour area, and the hospitals being saved by the loss of Lewisham services are in a Tory area. Entirely coincidental. Of course. PS: Of course, as once advised on this forum, 'PFI is a non-issue'.

The plan to spend £195m to get £19.5m savings. Lewisham – being punished by having its maternity and A&E services closed in order to cope with PFI debt at hospitals in an entirely different trust (ie debt not caused by Lewisham). It's entirely coincidental that Lewisham is a Labour area, and the hospitals being saved by the loss of Lewisham services are in a Tory area. Entirely coincidental. Of course. PS: Of course, as once advised on this forum, 'PFI is a non-issue'.

Re: Privatisation of NHS hospitals begins : Mon Jan 14, 2013 1:55 pm  

Mintball wrote: The plan to spend £195m to get £19.5m savings. Lewisham – being punished by having its maternity and A&E services closed in order to cope with PFI debt at hospitals in an entirely different trust (ie debt not caused by Lewisham). It's entirely coincidental that Lewisham is a Labour area, and the hospitals being saved by the loss of Lewisham services are in a Tory area. Entirely coincidental. Of course. PS: Of course, as once advised on this forum, 'PFI is a non-issue'. Not only that but if you look at the population it serves the decision is disgraceful. That closure in another town or city would be political suicide.

Mintball wrote: The plan to spend £195m to get £19.5m savings. Lewisham – being punished by having its maternity and A&E services closed in order to cope with PFI debt at hospitals in an entirely different trust (ie debt not caused by Lewisham). It's entirely coincidental that Lewisham is a Labour area, and the hospitals being saved by the loss of Lewisham services are in a Tory area. Entirely coincidental. Of course. PS: Of course, as once advised on this forum, 'PFI is a non-issue'. Not only that but if you look at the population it serves the decision is disgraceful. That closure in another town or city would be political suicide.