It's begun!

Here we go, a week after an election and health boards in Scotland are talking about cutting staff. The numbers given so far add up to 1876 and this does not include all boards, some are only talking about percentages.

Where are these cuts going to be made? You guessed it, Nurses, Midwives and other front line staff. But the good(?) news is that there will be no redundancies but there will be no replacing staff who leave or retire. So despite what the chief executives of the health boards say, more and more will be done by less and less. However, they have promised that services and patients will not suffer.

Does any of this sound familiar? I wrote this piece in January;

Recently we had the horror of Mid Stafford where over 1000 people may have died unnecessarily - why? Well here is a quote which may help point you in the right direction

"Over the years, many clinicians had noticed deterioration in the standards of patient care, which became particularly acute approximately three years ago when major cutbacks were made in staffing numbers. This included a ­savage reduction in the number of nursing staff."

When will they learn?

Hmmm

Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it!

So we have a hung parliament, Brown is desperately trying to hold on to power, Cameron is equally desperately trying to kick him out. Clegg is waiting to see who offers him the best deal. What happens now? As the one and only Conservative MP in Scotland said during his victory speech; "We live in interesting times." Not necessarily a good thing.

As we have only one Conservative MP in Scotland does this mean they have no mandate to rule us if Cameron becomes Prime Minister? Alex Salmond and the SNP think so. A sort of West Lothian Question in reverse. Ah well, time will tell.

One thing is absolutely certain, whoever gets in Scotland is going to suffer, our budget will be cut which means our services will be cut, our NHS will descend into long waits and a poorer service.

Addendum

I would just like to add that I still hope we have a hung parliament tomorrow. If nothing else it will force the politicians to actually do some politics.

Can I recommend the excellent Julie McAnulty at Campaigning for Health for this post

Candidates

Well, I have voted. Have you? If not get out and do it. My personal opinion, voting should be compulsory with a fine for those who don't vote without good reason.
During my training I was working in a locked ward in our local psychiatric hospital and one of the patients asked to vote. Was quite upset when told that he couldn't as he was barred because he was in the hospital. Is this still the case? Are psychiatric inpatients still barred from voting?

My son told me he did not know who to vote for, well in this election I can understand that as there is not a lot to choose between the main parties. The advice I gave him was, if you can't find someone to vote for then vote against someone or something.

Just as an aside, why is it that out of 8 candidates in my constituency 4 of them do not live in the area. One even lives 90 miles away - how can s/he represent me from 90 miles, they have no conception of the issues I live with - stupid.

More waste

I saw an item on the news last night, it said that civil servants were in New Zealand looking at how their parliament worked as they have a permanently hung parliament since they introduced proportional representation. Now why go all that distance and incur all that expense when they could look at any number of local councils in the UK and also look at the Scottish government in Hollyrood? Everything that happens there happens after debate and horse trading between the parties - works for us so why should it not work for the UK as a whole?

Ah well, we will soon see come 7th May.

London V Scotland

As we are going through an election where all parties are talking about cuts to the public sector I thought I would remind you of a post I did in January. In it I said that although Scotland spent more money per head on health services I asked what was wrong with this. I now want to tell you a personal(ish) story.

I have an aunt who has lived in London for years, She is in her late 60's early 70's (I don't like to ask ladies ages) and has needed the NHS a fair bit over the past few years. Recently she has returned to Scotland and of course everything has been transferred with her. We were talking the other day and she was discussing the NHS in our part of the world and my first thought was oh no, what have we done. Turns out it was the exact opposite, she was so impressed with our services, she pointed out that in London if she goes to A&E she waits for hours - despite the 4 hour target - when she goes to our hospital for a clinic appointment she is seen pretty much on time and there is a notice stating "if you have waited 20 minutes past your appointment time come to the desk and let us know". She also feels that up here the consultant she sees is willing and wants do more for her. So all in all a very satisfied patient who is glad that she has come home.


Now, I understand that direct comparisons are difficult and that London has huge problems that we don't but the experience of my family (her daughter and grand daughter) are that in Scotland we are doing it better.

I want to make it absolutely clear that I am in no way getting at London hospitals or the English NHS workers who I am sure are working as best they can with what they have. What I am trying to compare is that if you spend a bit more money and have a higher ratio of doctors and nurses to patients then things can be better


This report in The Telegraph makes for sad(angry) reading, I have commented in other places that management level never seem to be cut, it is always the front line staff who go. It is always nurses, porters, cleaners and now doctors who are cut. How do know when a politician is lying to you? - Their lips are moving.


Before their are more Stafford's, can I remind you of something I wrote in January;

Recently we had the horror of Mid Stafford where over 1000 people may have died unnecessarily - why? Well here is a quote which may help point you in the right direction
"Over the years, many clinicians had noticed deterioration in the standards of patient care, which became particularly acute approximately three years ago when major cutbacks were made in staffing numbers. This included a ­savage reduction in the number of nursing staff."

As Scotland is in charge of it's own NHS then perhaps we can avoid the worst excesses of the Westminster government. But I am not hopeful especially if Westminster cuts the budget.

I would love to see a hung parliament on Friday 7th May with SNP and Plaid Cymru having deciding votes.