[Link]

Here's a handy fact sheet to prove otherwise.

There are many reasons why the NHS is costing more, but surely the 3 main ones are...

PFI: introduced by the Tories but accelerated by Noo Labour, private companies were tasked with building nearly 12 billion pounds worth of hospiyals. Gernous. Only thing is, NHS trusts are predicted to have to pay over 12 TIMES what they borrowed in future repayments. That puts the overall costs of the schemes at close to 100 billion for the taxpayer, and the figure is rising each year.

Worth a read: [Link]

2012 Health and Social Care Act: if you ask most doctors and medical experts when the scales changed, this was it. Brought in by the Coalition despite explicit manifesto commitments not to restructure the health service, this bill provided most of the legal framework for a bureaucratic reorganisation of the health service.

Among other things, the duty of the health Secretary to provide a public health service was taken away; managers were parachuted in from American private health companies; the cap on the amount of money hospitals could make from things like parking charges, private consultations and private medicines was raised from 2% to 50%.

Again, read this for a detailed analysis of just how devastating this legislation, which had no popular assent, has been [Link]

Finally, the increase in the price of pharmaceutical drugs: Pfizer and GSK, among others, have already been fined for this practice. In 2017, the price of the NHS buying in drugs from private firms rose 34% to nearly 16 billion. We know that after Brexit, one of the main areas of UK-US trade deals will be to remove regulation on this matter.

Read: [Link]

While demographic changes are a factor, there is simply no evidence that they are costing as many billions as these issues are. For all the talk of record spending on the MY, the simple fact is that the spending is needed just yo meet the debts incurred by each of these things.

And yes, the Tories are cognizant and supportive of this. Osbourne called it the biggest mistake of his government (2012 HSC Act), Rawnseley who brought in the changes now works for a private health firm; Hancock is on record supporting further structural reforms of Health care; Hunt worked for a private trust before being health Secretary.

So if you really want the facts....there you have em.

I saw a Dutch friend last night she and her husband have been spending quite a bit of time in NHS hospitals lately.

The Dutch have a good healthcare system her big complaint about our NHS is efficiency rather than funding. She felt that too many patients in A&E shouldn't be there and should be at their GPs or local chemist and that not enough senior staff e.g. consultants work out of hours hence the delays.

Tory 40-50 seats.

I think you're probably about right. Absolutely astounded that Boris has managed to fight an entire election campaign avoiding scrutiny and shouting the same 3 word empty statement over and over again and the public just don't seem to care.

It doesn't seem like Labour and Lib Dems have managed to swallow enough pride to stand down in seats that had a reasonable chance of keeping the Tory out so bit of a shambles all round really.

I would Kevin Keegan love it though if we had a hung parliament and the whole thing has backfired on BJ and his awful cronies.

I think you're probably about right. Absolutely astounded that Boris has managed to fight an entire election campaign avoiding scrutiny and shouting the same 3 word empty statement over and over again and the public just don't seem to care.

It doesn't seem like Labour and Lib Dems have managed to swallow enough pride to stand down in seats that had a reasonable chance of keeping the Tory out so bit of a shambles all round really.

I would Kevin Keegan love it though if we had a hung parliament and the whole thing has backfired on BJ and his awful cronies.

But it doesn't 'Get It Done' though does it? It's just the beginning of new negotiations. It doesn't go away for a decade at least.

I see this morning that BJ was so proud of his policies that he decided to hide in a fridge rather than be interviewed. If I was proud of my policies I would simply not hide in a fridge.

This from a guy who described me as obnoxious.

From what I remember you described Al Jazeera in favourable terms.

The public services have become politicised and the NHS is a bulwark of the left.....just like you.

You decided to criticise others about immigration when I wasn't aware we were even talking about it. The biggest problem of many in the NHS is it's usage by the elderly who have nowhere else to go.

In some instances families burdening the state with a problem which traditionally was theirs. In part another problem encouraged by social liberalism's obsession with selfish individualism.

Edited by Stirlingsays (11 Dec 2019 9.51am)