Another NHS cutback by the back door?

[jambutty]

It has been reported on the wireless today that patients may have to wait for their flu vaccine this autumn because of ‘manufacturing’ problems. Strange how it is this year that there are ‘manufacturing’ problems just when many health authorities are in debt and striving hard to balance the books.

Doctors have been told to prioritise – that is only inoculate those people with heart and chest conditions.

Yep! I know! I’m an old cynic but if the manufacturers won’t be able to supply as much vaccine as they did in previous years the cost to the NHS will be reduced and thus it will save money. The fact that some vulnerable people will not be protected seems to have escaped their notice and of course the GP will bear the brunt of the problem. GP’s are going to be forced to play God as they decide if he should be vaccinated or her or neither in favour of someone else. If someone is vulnerable because of a flu infection then the vaccine should be available.

It has also been reported today that some 80% of nurses and other health professionals who qualify this year will not be able to find a job. Guess what the reason is. In order to try and address budget deficits hospitals are not recruiting new staff.

The Department of Health has countered the allegations with a lame: “jobs exist for newly qualified nurses but they need to be flexible on location.” That is government speak for if there isn’t a job locally you will have to move to where there is a job. If hospitals stopped using temps at enormous fees and thus lining the pockets of the agencies supplying them there would be enough money to take on regular nurses on a permanent basis.

Throw into the cutback cauldron the situation facing the Blackburn and Burnley hospitals (two of many I suspect) and you have a massive drive to reduce the NHS to a bar bones facility. Or put another way massive cutbacks by the back door.

[chav1]

i get a letter every year telling me i need to have one because i have asthma

i have never had one because i have seen people get ill for weeks from the vacine and still got the flu

if i get flu i find cutting down the fags and increasing the alchol intake does teh trick , got to keep up the fluids an all that

[lettie]

I'm sure that we have had memos round at work for the last few years stating that there is a munufacturing problem with flu vaccine, so this is not the first time.

It is disgusting that student nurses and midwives cannot find work within their own localities. Some of our student midwives have managed to find jobs and some haven't. Out of the last intake of students one of them could only find a job in London, her husband and children live in the Preston area and she comes home on her days off. This is clearly an unacceptable living situation and nobody should have to move so far away from their families in order to work. It's not as if nursing and midwifery are so specialised that there is no call for local services, we are always desperate for staff locally but have no money to employ them. The government would rather waste money on useless reforms and bureaucracies than actual patient care.

[Wynonie Harris]

£20 billion on digitising all NHS records and there's not enough money to employ front line staff. And all Labour party members can tell us is what Margaret Thatcher did 20 years ago!

[Madhatter]

lmao thats true. I've learnt more about maggie from the labour party than from anywhere else. They must love the hag.