Told you so !!

[empip]

HMG - pizz up in brewery - failure !

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6276793.stm

 

[Softus]

Who, in your opinion, has failed to do what, exactly?

 

[empip]

..The government should have capped the money GPs can make out of their new contract, the health secretary says...

Govn failed to properly manage new contracts. At the least Less hours - huge hike in pay -

...roughly the same as a director of social services running a whole county's complex children's services, including all schools, children in care and children's health...

 

[Softus]

..The government should have capped the money GPs can make out of their new contract, the health secretary says...

The Health Secretary is a major component of government, so I don't understand who she can refer to it as if it were a separate entity.

So, against what criteria is she saying that the income should be capped? IMHO she's just reacting rashly and incompetently to the embarrassment that the story has caused.

And despite me asking you what your opinion was, you don't seem to be presenting one.

Govn failed to properly manage new contracts. At the least Less hours - huge hike in pay -

...roughly the same as a director of social services running a whole county's complex children's services, including all schools, children in care and children's health...

Who cares if GPs are earning more, as long as they deliver the service that we ask of them?

 

[oilman]

IMHO she's just reacting rashly and incompetently to the embarrassment that the story has caused.

As she always does. She's one of Blair's babes (well, hag now), responds to events in the same way he does.

 

[pickles]

The point seems to be that with the NHS facing a huge financial shortfall it is felt that failure to negotiate a good deal with GP's has contributed. Some of them now work a 9-5 week and leave on call and such like to private firms who charge for it. The NHS picks up the tab as well as paying the increased salaries

You can't blame the GP's for taking the money but you can blame the government for getting it wrong. They should open the service up to the market, if GP's had to compete for their patients it would drive prices down and service standards up. They are a monopoly supplier which isn't any good for the public.

 

[markie]

Bring in the monster loony party, can't be any worse.

 

[Softus]

Present company excepted, it amuses me that only 62% of the population voted at the last General Election, and yet it's more like 100% who think they have the right to criticise government decisions.

Wouldn't is be great if, like RGIs working on gas, we had to show proof of having voted before opening our gobs and pouring steaming great streams of abuse all over those in the public eye.

 

[markie]

I must confess I didn't vote in the last election, or the one before that and even the one before that. So what right have I got.

 

[oilman]

They should open the service up to the market, if GP's had to compete for their patients it would drive prices down and service standards up. They are a monopoly supplier which isn't any good for the public.

Er, you mean just as dentist's prices have fallen under private treatment?

 

[pickles]

They should open the service up to the market, if GP's had to compete for their patients it would drive prices down and service standards up. They are a monopoly supplier which isn't any good for the public.

Er, you mean just as dentist's prices have fallen under private treatment?

Oo er missus fair point.

There is quite a lot of price variation but dentists don't operate in a true open market, no large providers have been allowed to move into the market. Ex NHS dentists are just running private practices and charging what they can. If you got the medical equivalent of Tescos in the market people would use it and probably get a better service. The idea that you have to go to a professional that runs his own small practice and is protected from competition rather than a large company that employs doctors and competes with other providers sadly doesn't make much sense in this day and age.

Gp's obviously don't like the idea of having their cash cow taken away from them. They challenged an attempt to introduce a private service in Cheshire in the courts. Personally i'm a great believer in the NHS, my mum was an old school Matron who ran her ward with a rod of iron and I grew up in and around hospitals in the 60's which was a bit of a golden age for the NHS. Unfortunately it's not like that now and I don't think it could be again. The money isn't there and attitudes have changed. People aren't deferential like they used to be and wouldn't put up with the old ways of just turning and doing as they are told

It's great to have a free service but medics are like anyone else plumbers, sparkies, accountants or whatever. Some are good and some are not. It helps to have choice, it means you can get access to who you want when you want, not based on the whim of your GP.

Give it twenty years and Gp's as we know them will be history, the supermarkets are going to take over the world

That's my theory anyway.

 

[BoxBasher]

Wouldn't is be great if we had to show proof of having voted before opening our gobs and pouring steaming great streams of abuse all over those in the public eye.

Now that's an idea...

.. or even better, prove that you hadn't voted for the current shower before moaning about how bad things are.

Although Labour did keep one promise - they didn't increase taxes, they just introduced lots of new ones...

 

[ninebob]

Present company excepted, it amuses me that only 62% of the population voted at the last General Election, and yet it's more like 100% who think they have the right to criticise government decisions.

Wouldn't is be great if, like RGIs working on gas, we had to show proof of having voted before opening our gobs and pouring steaming great streams of abuse all over those in the public eye.

Softus, I'm with you 100% on this.

I voted Labour at the last election. I only did so for tactical reasons. I was living in Grantham at the time, and our MP was a conservative with a terrible track record, but a very safe (almost guaranteed) seat. I wanted to vote Lib Dem, but in that constituency it would have been a wasted vote, so a Labour vote was my only hope of getting Quentin Davies out. Sadly, I failed.

However, going back to your point, I at least feel that having voted Labour I have earned the right to be p*ssed off with them and their policies over the last few years, even though the conservative kept his seat.

 

[oilman]

I voted Labour at the last election. I only did so for tactical reasons. I was living in Grantham at the time, and our MP was a conservative with a terrible track record, but a very safe (almost guaranteed) seat. I wanted to vote Lib Dem, but in that constituency it would have been a wasted vote, so a Labour vote was my only hope of getting Quentin Davies out. Sadly, I failed.

That really was a wasted vote. Almost as useful as "staggering your journey" to avoid causing congestion. Tactical voting would work only if all the voters conferred beforehand. It's a pointless mental aberation to expect it to do anything on an individual basis.

If all the people who voted for a party they didn't want, had voted for the party they wanted, maybe we wouldn't have had to put up with this devious shower we have had for the last 10 years.

However, going back to your point, I at least feel that having voted Labour I have earned the right to be p*ssed off with them and their policies over the last few years, even though the conservative kept his seat.

You have also given lots of people the right to be p*ssed off with those who played silly games of "tactical voting".

 

[esra_ptrap]

Although Labour did keep one promise - they didn't increase taxes

Not yet but they will ... Wait and see what happens when the cheerful Scot is leader and some other unfortunate git is responsible for the budget!

5% income tax rises are predicted.