Dear Mr Hunt
On Thursday night, in your acceptance speech, you accused me of “falsehoods”.
In your words, you accuse me of lying about “both our record with the NHS and also our motives”. You were clearly rattled that over 12,000 people in South West Surrey showed their concern for the NHS and voted for someone who questioned your record, but that is what democracy is all about – holding the government to account.
The truth is that I haven’t lied for the simple reason that I haven’t needed to. The facts speak for themselves.
When I talked about your record, I drew out many facts:
- The number of people lying on trolleys waiting more than 4 hours to be admitted to a hospital bed increased from 387,737 in 2015/16 to 560,108 in 2016/17 – that’s a 45% increase in one year. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that a trolley is one of the least safe places to be in the health care system or of the three patients who died in Worcestershire hospital on trolleys during last winter’s crisis?[i] The British Red Cross described it as a “humanitarian crisis.”
- Ambulance response times, especially for the most urgent calls, are the worst since records began. The national target of reaching 75% of Category A calls within eight minutes has not been met for 32 consecutive months. [ii]
- Mental health services are struggling. Suicide is the commonest cause of death in boys age 5-16 yet children’s mental health services can’t cope with the volume of referrals and often there is not a single mental health bed anywhere in the country due to cuts to mental health provision. [iii]
- Performance against the 6-week cancer treatment target and the 18-week elective treatment target are deteriorating. [iv]
- Infant mortality is rising for the first time in years, having been rising for poorer children for a decade. [v]
- The Royal Society of Medicine attributed the 30,000 excess deaths in the winter of 2015 to cuts to health and social care. [vi]
- The NHS has fallen further down international league tables of mortality due to treatable causes. [vii]
None of these is a lie.
I also talked about the increasing privatisation for the NHS and your quote that “I am not privatising the NHS”. Was it a lie when I pointed out that the percentage of Dept of Health budget spent on for-profit providers rose by 25% in two years? [viii]
Perhaps it was my comments about funding that you felt were untrue. I said that the NHS had been underfunded and that future plans in the manifesto were insufficient. In fact, it was your government that was rebuked by the health select committee (including two Conservative MPs) for claiming that you’d be spending an extra £10 billion a year on NHS by 2020.[ix] They pointed out that a large proportion of this was taken from public health and doctor and nurse training budgets. Moving money around within a service to appear more generous than you actually are is fundamentally dishonest. [x]
In fact, your claim that you will be spending an extra £10bn per annum by 2020 compared with 2015 turns out to be only a £4.5 bn increase. This amounts to a 1.1% annual rise each year in the decade from 2010 -2020[xi], the biggest funding squeeze in NHS history and not even half of the 2.7% per annum forecast growth in need over that period, according to the NHS chief executive.[xii] As for the future, Prof Anita Charlesworth of the Health Foundation says that the promised extra funding for the NHS in the Conservative manifesto is far less than the NHS needs.[xiii]
Maybe you are accusing me of lying when I draw attention to NHS staff shortages and the disgraceful way you treat NHS staff:
- In 2015, Health Education England calculated that the NHS had 30,000 fewer full-time equivalent nurses than needed – equivalent to nearly one in 10 positions.[xiv]
- You have imposed a draconian pay cap on nurses meaning their pay will have been cut by 12% by 2020[xv]
- You have removed the bursary for student nurses, meaning many people who want to train to become a nurse can’t afford to do so[xvi]
- You have treated nurses and junior doctors with contempt. Record numbers are taking time off with stress because they fear that patients aren’t receiving the care they need[xvii] and 50% of nurses are considering leaving the profession because of this[xviii]
- In the recent NHS staff survey, 47% said current staffing levels were insufficient to allow them to do their job properly and 59% reported working unpaid overtime each week.[xix]
- Since your announcement in 2015 of 5,000 more GPs by 2020 we actually have fewer GPs now than two years ago! [xx]
In the election campaign I stated that your performance as Health Secretary is destroying the NHS, demoralising staff and risking patient safety. As you can see from the above, this is absolutely true.
Finally, you accused me of lying about your motives. I have no idea what your motives are for destroying our NHS, but I have tried to give you the benefit of the doubt.
I have assumed that you are doing it deliberately – in order to run it down and provide an excuse for privatisation.
If I were you I’d accept that interpretation, because the alternative is that this has all been caused by your sheer incompetence.
Patients and NHS staff deserve better than this. The NHS is a great organisation and provides excellent care to most people most of the time, thanks to its dedicated and hardworking staff. But it is cracking at the seams and sometimes failing, due to the many pressures it is under. I am motivated by the desire to defend the NHS and raise the alarm about the dangers it faces from a continuation of Conservative policies. And as long as you are health secretary I will continue to hold you to account for what you are doing to the NHS.
Dr Louise Irvine
[i] https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity
[ii] http://www.qualitywatch.org.uk/indicator/ae-waiting-times
[iii] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/04/nhs-child-mental-health-services-anxiety-depression
[iv] http://www.qualitywatch.org.uk/latest-data/combined-performance-summary-march-2017
[v] http://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2258
[vii] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/18/nhs-care-among-worst-europe
[viii] https://www.bma.org.uk/collective-voice/influence/key-negotiations/nhs-funding/privatisation-report
[x] https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/nhs-budget
[xi] https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/fyfv-tech-note-090516.pdf
[xii] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/29/nhs-nurses-pay-cut-12-per-cent-over-decade
[xiv] http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/national-hell-service-landmark-nurses-10053340
I watched his acceptance speech on video ,he came over as small minded and arrogant.I pity the NHS staff who have to work with him,the fact that yet again he has kept his post indicates how uncaring and out of touch May has proved to be.I will do everything I can to change this situation,in the meantime my thoughts are with the NHS staff who have to work for and answer to this particular Secretary of State for Health and this government.
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That’s fine but please do not think May is uncaring and out of touch, the tories HATE the NHS and Hunt is in post to destroy it and give it away. May knows this. Think back to her first reshuffle – there was a delay announcing SofS Health – rumours flew that Hunt was out – you can imagine the frantic phone calls – “Theresa did nobody tell you – he isn’t useless its a plan keep him on!”
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Unfortunately this is a superglue seat and while your efforts have reduced the majority a tiny bit, it is no more than a blip. By the time you will have another chance to have a pop, the NHS as we know won’t exist.
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I live in this constituency and I think the problem is that we did not all vote tactically. Unfortunately, there was conflicting advice – the Guardian had the tactical vote as Labour, and the Gina Miller campaign as Louise Irvine, so again, the non-Tory vote was split.
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Did the Grauniad truely have it as tactical Labour? – that is appalling! Shame (yet again) on the Grauniad. (And I’m a G supporter).
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It wouldn’t have changed the result even if everyone else had voted for Louise – the combined total still wouldn’t have been enough to unseat JH.
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NHA + Labour +Lib Dem votes = 25,666; this still leaves a 8,017 majority for J Hunt. There must be some sort of brainwashing fluid in the waters of Guildford, it’s the only explanation for why people would so overwhelmingly vote for the ransacking of the NHS.
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Kensington was a superglue Tory seat, too. It may have just gone with a 20 seat lead to Labour but I would suggest that the Conservatives have well and truly lost it for a very long time because of #Grenfell Tower. The public mood has changed. The media mood has changed. The greed and corruption of this Government is being exposed. I’d not assume anything any longer, politically.
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This is powerful stuff and surely deserves an even wider audience. Is it going to the press or does that then make for more complications? Surely Jeremy Hunt should be required to respond?
We were delighted that Louise increased her share of the vote by such a large percentage and the fact that his name does not ever appear in news reports following the debacle over the election is surely eloquent testimony of his invisibility and lack of involvement or caring. This is surely a battle that must be won for all all our sakes so please keep up the fight Louise!
Best wishes and good luck , we are with you. R&D ……………..
>
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A damning indictment. I fear you are correct, that Hunt remains in place because he is doing exactly what his Party wish him to do. Together with implementation of the Naylor report, they are doing all they can to sell off large chunks of the NHS by the back door.
There needs to be more scrutiny of the personal interests of Jeremy Hunt and his family, including Virginia Bottomly.
As you say, if the ruination of the NHS ISN’T deliberate, then how is someone so incompetent still in place.
Thank you for an excellent exposé and for all you and your colleagues do for us.
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My very best wishes on your campaign Dr Louise -A very impressive though sad indictment of an evil man in an evil government taking advantage of the good natured . Chin up this government will fail soon. Then there’ll be another election and this corrupt evil regime will be swept away. Oh roll-on.
Thankyou
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I approached Jeremy Hunt after one of your hustings Louise and showed him a sign saying Y R U selling NHS. Once he read the message he leapt back from the sign and defended himself saying, not true and waving his arms. His body language told me all I needed to know. He recoiled from the truth of that statement as if it had been a venomous snake.
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On behalf of patients, thank you so much for making a stand against Mr Hunt. To achieve over 12,000 voted was fantastic and that number speaks volumes for the support you had from patients and public. I’m afraid in his speech Mr Hunt showed showed scant regard for you or those who voted for you.
Your response to him, above, outlines perfectly the facts. Thank you and please continue with your great work. It’s not only your local patients and public who support you.
Clive Blanchard
Patient & Patient Representative
Chelmsford
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Thank you for standing against the monster that is Jeremy Hunt & fighting to save our NHS. We need you to please continue fighing for us/NHS. With a little more luck we will have a Labour Govt led by #JC4PM; he’ll save our NHS and expose this charlatan.
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Dr Ervin when you talk of the £10 billion cash for the NHS, have you read the Naylor report, the £10 bil is for a fire sale of selling off NHS property and has nothing to do with actually funding the NHS in the traditional sense.
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I think it is just possible that Hunt – and May – think he is doing a good job in trying circumstances, and that opposition to him and his plans (or lack of them) is orchestrated by a minority of trouble-makers. Unfortunately both these politicians suffer from viewing all opinions except their own through some kind of distorting lens, and are unlikely to hear or understand the views of anyone who disagrees with them. Hence his apparent self-satisfaction. It is tragic that the voters of Surrey failed to oust him, leaving the rest of the country to endure his incompetence for a further term.
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Well said a very brace and honest woman you have my full support via social media I will encourage others to share this well done
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Well done Louise. Keep working to expose these corrupt thieves .
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He’s one of the most arrogant, insufferable politicians I’ve ever had to watch. He won’t listen, he won’t compromise, he has zero compassion and should not be in public life. He actually sees the tragedy of the human condition as a business opportunity. I can’t say just how disgusted I am by him. beyond words.
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So far this government are slowly reversing the clock with its out of date policies. Bringing back Grammer schools that proved to be out moded by so many students who have gone on to gain double firsts at university from secondary modern schools is one example that grading students at the age of eleven was unsound. Healthcare is only another example of not moving with the times where top executives (often with only half the qualifications of a junior Doctor) are paid salaries quite out of proportion to most health workers so soaking up funds much needed for the care of the ordinary patient. This, Education and transport need to be nationalized if we are to have true democracy. I could go on and on but to rob pensioners of their lifetime savings should they need healthcare is truly the last straw when they have already paid a lifetime of taxes for their needs. This present government need to grow up as they come accross as well educated (limited) spoilt wealthy children unaccustomed to the realities of the majority.
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Glad to see you doing so well. Your old comrade, michael anderson
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Is there any thing I can do to support Louise , in what I can only say was a completly unacceptable way for Hunt to behave.He comes over as thoroughly objectionable,goodness knows how he would have behaved had he lost his seat ,I suspect a full blown temper tantrum.jane Hale
On 12 Jun 2017 17:21, “NHA – South West Surrey Group” wrote:
> swsurreynha posted: “Dear Mr Hunt On Thursday night, in your acceptance > speech, you accused me of “falsehoods”. In your words, you accuse me of > lying about “both our record with the NHS and also our motives”. You were > clearly rattled that over 12,000 people in South Wes” >
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Excellent analysis. Your informed contempt is palpable and just . I wish you luck that you get a chance to stand again . Perhaps at another seat? I’d love to see you take him on in the HoP.
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Louise – I am a GP and I am horrified that Hunt is back in post undermining morale, stealing services away from those that deserve them just to flog it all off to big businesses (who can’t cope with the profit margins and dump them as soon as this becomes apparent). I said to my husband (also a doctor) when the Tories won in 2015 that general practice would be privatised by the end of their term. It breaks my heart. All that goodwill, all that expertise and care so casually dismissed.
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It was a pleasure and an honour to work for you in the election.To achieve what you did,at such short notice,insuch a bigoted Tory constituency was fantastic.I know you will do even better in the imminent rerun!
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Brava!
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Keep up the good work Dr Louise. It is frightening how arrogant, insensitive and downright uncaring this government is, as typified by Hunt.
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Bravo Dr Irvine,
For your facts, figures and clear compassion.
This man and several other ministers are self – serving business men who have no place in government.
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Finally someone with the bollocks to speak the truth! ❤
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Thank you Dr. Louise. Thank you so much!
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Dear Louise, your comments are insightful and terrifying, your campaign to oust Jeremy hunt was fully supported by me. I know from trying to encourage others to vote for you in your constituency, many were keen, but others were dubious about voting for the NHA. With the current climate as it is, would you stand more chance if you joined forces with Labour, they certainly could benefit from your experience and expertise?
Good luck in the future, I wish you all the success you need to distroy JH and the Conservative mandate!
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This is letter really states the facts that the public have been suspicious of for some time. We are ,supposedly, a democracy and I cannot think of one person whom I know who wants to see any more privatisation . In fact the opposite is probably true, we would like to see all privatisation eventually taken out of the NHS. I know that I want a privatisation free NHS.
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Dr Irvine, you are an inspiration and I wish you all the luck in the world in getting all of us who care about the future of our beloved NHS behind your cause and defending it to the last. It is appalling that it has come to this after years of Conservative rule. That Jeremy Hunt is back in post is extremely sad but not surprising really. He has after all done his job very well – as you say, driving down the service as an excuse to privatise it. That’s exactly the situation with that other awful MP, Chris Grayling and the Southern Rail crisis and what they are intending with the Land Registry. I don’t understand how anyone with a conscience or pride in their country can vote for such an evil party. Please keep up the good work. We are all behind you.
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Thank you for your detailed analysis and for calling Hunt to account.
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You state: “You have imposed a draconian pay cap on nurses meaning their pay will have been cut by 12% by 2020”
This is accurate and true. But what this misses is the long term impact on nurses index-linked pensions. If a nurse who retired (say) 10 years ago at age 55 after damaging her back received a £12,000 a year pension, her colleague who worked an extra ten years to 65 will receive a far smaller pension in real terms, because whilst the retirement pension is index linked and rises in line with inflation, the pay wasn’t.
You would need an actuary to figure out the maths, but basically how it works is this: the longer you work, the more you get ripped off.
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Labour started accepting private money for the NHS in the quest to privatise bits of it and their PFI scheme sucked the NHS dry. Their model is what May is building on. We are lucky only in the fact that Mrs Thatcher thought it would be too much of an explosive idea for the population and rejected the idea, or there wouldn’t be much of it left by now.
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Time to invoke the libel laws?
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Thank you for caring enough, not only stand against Hunt, but also to take the time to write such a detaqiled letter. Referencing every fact and figure of this damning list must be heartbreaking. Reading it certainly is. I could cry for our doctor and nurses, to be working so hard and never feeling like you’re winning, must be devastating, particularly so in healthcare. No wonder, as you point out, that so many are suffering from stress related conditions.
Please don’t give up, if possible, your efforts to show what this spiteful government are doing to our NHS, and how Hunt in particular, so obviously relishes dismantling the service and causing distress and actual harm to so many people, from the start of life, to the end of life, his cuts have impacted us all. Very best wishes to you Dr Irvine,
Annie Haslam
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Absolutely right. The NHS is being systematically dismantled and privatised by these dishonest and hypocritical Tories. Talk to anyone who actually works in the NHS and you get the true story of underfunding, understaffing and stress beyond belief. And the Tories are STILL proposing further cuts and more austerity. I wonder where they get THEIR
health treatment….
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Hunt is a red herring and a scapegoat. The real villians are ourselves for refusing to adequately fund the care we say we want.
I detest Jeremy Hunt, although not so much as Kenneth Clarke and Margaret Thatcher who started this process of semi privatisation in 1990. But Louise Irvine is barking up the wrong tree. Repeated reorganisations are a symptom. The cause is that we, the British public, demand more health care product than we are willing to pay for. Perpwtual reorganisation and private sector involvement ( which by the way soared under Gordon Brown’s PFI schemes) are down to governments’ attempts to deliver more care than we are willing to pay for.
One solution. Increase National Insurance to fund the full cost of NHS and social care. That was the original intention. Probably cost about a pound a person a day more. And move NHS management away from the ruling political party of the day to an appointed and elected body answerable to Parliament, not 10 Downing street.
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This is a very truthful analysis of our NHS in the hands of the Tory government. I have worked in the NHS since 1978 and it saddens me so much how bad it has become, staff are demoralised and yet continue to give 110% – however I don’t know how long this goodwill can continue. I think this letter should be sent to the Queen, as our head of state at the end of the day she has to give permission to the Tory government to form another Parliament, surely she has an opinion. Also the letter should be published for all to see.
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Well done, Doctor Irvine. Your forensic analysis took Hunt apart. It’s galling to be up against such seemingly immovable objects and it can seem like swimming against the strongest tide. Do hope you have the will to carry on; millions of people agree with you and when your cause is victorious we’ll be grateful to you. Every best wish.
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It is absolutely disgraceful why j hunt is again trying to get rid of the NHS for private as the majority of his colleagues use the private just out there to feather there nests. Well done Dr Irvine we are all with you and thank you for your continued support.
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Very difficult as we now have a Conservative party that DOES NOT CONSERVE. All the decencies are flung out . Never were they this satanic. But they CAN be fought and here is an effective fighter. Thank you.
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Good on you : the truths need to be told. How he can still be in his post one can only guess. There is something corrupt about the level of deception and misinformation propagated by the conservative government. No accountability to the people, the electorate, or this dedicated staff doing their best in a time of health crisis.
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Dear Dr Irvine
Your letter is so powerful because you speak from a base of first-hand knowledge. If enough of us care we can make our voices heard. We need a candidate for the NHS Party in as many constituencies as possible but in my view to be heard they need to members of the medical profession. I know this means overworked professionals called upon to do more but waiting will not resolve the situation and short term effort may secure a brighter and more secure future for us all.
The only true wealth is our health (been saying that on greetings cards for years) as I found out when I needed urgent treatment and received it within 24 hours.
How do we join the NHS Party?
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You can sign up here to join the National Health Action Party http://nhap.org/join/ Thank you.
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Crowd funded defamation action? Just thinking aloud.
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Well said Dr Louise. The sooner this nasty little man and his government peers are out of office the better. Thank-you for your efforts on behalf of us all.
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Reblogged this on Socialist Fight and commented:
Surely a classic response to Hunt and the Tory devastation of the NHS deserves to make Dr Louise Irvine a hero of the labour movement. I have never seen a better defence of the NHS than this and it really does nail the lies in Hunt’s attack on her.
And it focuses the blame again on those trade union bureaucracies, coordinated by the TUC’s Frances O’Grady who isolated and deliberately caused the defeat of the junior hospital doctor’s dispute. Their struggle was the best chance to defend the NHS and strike struggle and direct action remains the only way to defend the NHS and the entire welfare state.
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Thanks for your work. Many years since giving out Health Emergency leaflets and watched cuts, PPI and (the British Disease) unsustainable layers of “management”
weigh down on our wonderful health service.
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Bravo!!!!
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Wouldn’t it be karma for Mr Hunt to require the services of the NHS and have to wait in a corridor for 6 hours waiting on a bed. I work in the NHS in Scotland and do realise that things up here although still under pressure are way better than in England. I have first hand had to use the service in Scotland and have had excellent treatment and care. My daughter recieved excellent care in Addenbrookes last year but the length of time she has had to wait for follow up appointments is ridiculous and far in access of the time I have had to wait in Scotland. Mr Hunt we have a service that the rest of the world is envious off Do not destroyed it and take the UK back to times when dickens novels where written about the poverty and NO care society
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Thank God. I no longer live in the UK. The French system is without doubt better. I wait 3 days for a cataract operation and 3 weeks for the second eye. My total bill was 22 euros for the food consumed. Although not perfect,and maybe because the french are hyperchondriacs, there is no longer any comparison with the horror tales we have here of British NHS. Also. Here it
is all nationalised. Not privatised. What we, from afar, do not understand, is how top executives, not Doctors, command such high salaries. £12000 a year is the limit of our pensions after 40 years of work (including State pension) and we think we are well off. I would love to return healthcare for the people rather than a selected few with inflated ego’s.
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