My knowledge of NHS procurement is sketchy at best but it does seem to me that a lot of it remains at local level with the trusts negotiating their own contracts and competing with one another. The idea that "salesmen" visit doctors and nurses to promote drugs and equipment has always felt uncomfortable to me, as a waste of everybody's time and money. Surely many things ought to be handled at a national level? The principal of subsidiarity applies just as much with the NHS as anywhere else. I understand the desire to introduce internal markets, to improve efficiency and reduce bureaucracy, but when this is a consequence questions need to be asked.

We are effectively now in a war against the virus and time. The only time in my lifetime I witnessed the UK going onto a war footing was when we went to the Falklands. What I saw then amazed me. I happened to be living close to a major emergency army supply base near Tewkesbury and the amount of equipment that was moved from there, 24 hours a day for a week or two, was incredible. The warehouses there are enormous and seemingly stretch for miles .

Surely one of the lessons from this must be we need a similar reserve facility for health care, with the stock rotated into actual use to avoid deterioration.

If central contracts replace local ones and all information on drug efficacy is also centralised, then the companies would no longer offer them.

Doctors need to be rewarded on performance by us, and not by companies on whether they prescribe their drugs or not.

Disney are not giving any cash refunds. They are offering a ticket extension until December or if you apply, they will consider extending it. So if you are not able/ want to travel to the US in the future you will have lost your ticket money, which are not cheap. Pretty poor show by the company that promotes being family friendly and the greatest place on earth

Always thought they were a Mickey Mouse company

Of all the dumb luck...

Apologies for this not very helpful. Lesson learned “don’t post after a few hours sleep due to bad back”