Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

As Governments tend to spend more money than they receive through taxation, contributors like your parents would have funded day-to-day spending.

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

While that is the case people who lived to be 100 got far more out of it for their contributions. Which is part of the reason it's becoming unsustainable in the long run, but as I said it's political suicide without wholesale reforms to redistribute wealth across the generations on a massive scale.

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

So would you take away the state pensions those people have paid into or make it mandatory that they must die at a certain age?

Since they started paying in the NHS and medical research have concentrated on extehding life. That comes at a cost. One of the costs is work for more years like it or not.

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

Those aren't the sole options for resolving it.

I said 'wholesale reforms to redistribute wealth'- one or two measures wouldn't adequately resolve the problem.

We have one generation who sold off all the state assets for a low tax economy, who have accumulated wealth as a result and we have the other end of the spectrum paying for their own further education (unlikely to ever pay this debt off, so in effect an additional tax throughout their lifetime), struggling to get on the housing ladder, and who is having to pay taxes covering the interest for huge deficits and debts built up by previous generations.

It's not going to be sustainable to tell the second group that they are going to get punished again to cover the excesses of those who went before them.

A first step would be to break the triple lock on State Pension increases and link it to the CPI only - the triple lock is essentially a bribe to that part of the electorate anyway.

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

Hold on, i’m 48, my wife is 43, both from working class backgrounds. Meaning that they worked. “ working class” seems to have a different meaning nowadays. i pull in a salary of £55K+. Her £130K+. We didn’t receive 1penny from our parents because they didn’t haven’t it. We didn’t get our first home until I was 30. We now, through hard work and good decisions live in a very nice house in the country. With a whopping mortgage that we can service.

So because i’m Doing the right thing you want to distribute my work? That’s what you’re saying...

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

That's not actually what I said at all. I think you know that as you decided to remove the rest of my post from your quote for the sake of starting an argument.

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

Flight of capital only applies if that’s easy to do. In a post Brexit world if people want to make profits in this country then it will be easier to tax.

The triple lock is a bribe. Nothing less and nothing more.

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

Exactly.

One thing these figures also miss is the £10 billion or so that is not claimed in the first place.

Whatever system there is creating hoops for the claimants to jump through, the fraudulent claimers will not be the ones affected. After all, they have put a lot of time and effort into making sure their income continues.

The people affected are those who are told they are fit to work, whilst being hooked up to machines to keep them going through their latest cancer treatment. Those who are vulnerable and bewildered by the whole system who end up abused by sharks and the likes of Atos.

The obsession with nit picking over a tiny percentage of benefit claimants, is a distraction from the real problem of a tax system so convoluted that the wealthy can pay a smaller percentage of their income in tax than the poorest.

Meanwhile the other beneficiaries are private companies being paid for gash assessments, which long term cause so much misery.

Tax evasion is a far bigger loss to government finances than fraudulent benefit claims.

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

You ignore the fact that the NHS has had to change to due advances in medical research and new treatments which help people survive conditions which would have been terminal before, and that people are living longer, which takes more resources.

In the 1970’s (pre-Thatcher), premature births before 27 weeks had a 80% mortality rate, now it’s 89% survival rate (unfortunately, often with ongoing medical needs).

Cancer survival rates has greatly increased, but with the associated costs.

Survival from serious accidents has greatly increased (the "golden hour"), but again, at increased costs and often ongoing medical care.

Comparing the NHS in the 70s and now is like comparing a motor car factory in the 70s and now - different needs, progress has happened, more complex and and highly technical support is often required, and things are done differently because it’s a different world.

In 1970, the U.K. child mortality rate was 21.8 per 100,00 births, now it’s 3.7. Cancer survival rates (10 year) have doubled since 1970, and in the 70s, most premature births of under 25 weeks were left to die, nowadays most survive.

Trying to retrofit what one worked under different circumstances very rarely works.

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

The facts you describe are not in dispute.

It's the way the NHS is run, particularly at hospital level, front line, that I am criticising. Sure technical specialists are required in addition to clinical staff but in my dealings with the NHS, I sense too high an administrative burden which reduces the money available for midwives, district nurses and all the services we enjoyed in that way 20 years ag,.

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

The difference with Midwives and District Nurses is down to how GPs are funded separately from the rest of the NHS. GP services are increasingly run by private companies, who are squeezing out the traditional family doctor service. More and more areas are having to fight to keep local surgeries due to funding issues coupled with problems getting GPs. One local area has no GP service at all due to the Private company pulling out, with no one else willing to take it on. In a town that has tripled in size this causes a huge strain on the remaining Health Centres.

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

How can we fill these nursing vacancies?
https://www.ft.com/content/8f2d6e22-...5-04b8afea6ea3

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

Not helped by the cut to nursing bursaries, meaning even fewer are joining the profession.

Re: Crisis in the NHS
 

https://www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-even...een-a-disaster Lack of "joined-up" thinking...