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The Jenny McGee departure from the NHS is a tricky one for BoJo – the man she nursed

The Jenny McGee departure from the NHS is a tricky one for BoJo – the man she nursed

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Singling out nurses for special treatment could spark off a host of other public service pay demands The Jenny McGee story makes most of the front pages this morning and is likely to continue to get attention for a week or so until after the Channel 4 programe she features in goes out. This touches a few issues including BREXIT which has made the UK more difficult for trained foreign nurses and the need for the government to keep public…

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Hatchings, Matchings and Dispatchings.

Hatchings, Matchings and Dispatchings.

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2020 will be an unlamented year, known for a long time as the year of the coronavirus. Hopefully 2021 will be better, if the various vaccines and Brexit permit, and some resurgence of normal activity returns. Indeed just as the excesses of the roaring Twenties followed the Spanish Flu, we may well see a year of hedonistic excess. I do not wish to dwell long on the “excess deaths”, a subject thrashed over fairly heavily by both amateur and professional…

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Saving lives and protecting the NHS

Saving lives and protecting the NHS

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In Lord Denning’s 1980 judgement preventing the Birmingham Six from suing the police for injuries while in custody, he stated:  “Just consider………if their action were to proceed to trial………If they won, it would mean that the police were guilty of perjury; that they were guilty of violence and threats; that the confessions were involuntary and improperly admitted in evidence; and that the convictions were erroneous…….That was such an appalling vista that every sensible person would say, ‘It cannot be right that…

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Northern Italy is getting a bit too close for comfort

Northern Italy is getting a bit too close for comfort

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A sign of things to come in the UK? Although we now have had three confirmed deaths in the UK the overall scale here is much less than in several other countries that are almost on our doorsteps which is why most of the papers are leading on what’s going on in Northern Italy. Could this be an indication of what things will be like here just a few months on? Northern Italy, after all, is a part of the…

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A Journal Of The Plague Year. The politics of Covid-19

A Journal Of The Plague Year. The politics of Covid-19

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If you aren’t worried, you haven’t been paying attention.  Recent outbreaks of contagious illnesses – SARS, Ebola, bird flu – have been contained fairly efficiently.  So, many have assumed that the same will apply to the coronavirus Covid-19. That’s not inevitable.   On such occasions, everyone becomes an instant expert in epidemiology.  Let’s try to avoid that and concentrate on what we do, and more importantly, don’t know.  We don’t know with any reliability how many cases there are now (China…

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On healthcare Farage, Trump’s biggest British cheerleader, is vulnerable

On healthcare Farage, Trump’s biggest British cheerleader, is vulnerable

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Those opposed the Brexit party should change the subject to the NHS Last November Donald Trump took a beating in the midterm elections when his opponents, the Democrats, were able to make his threats to undermine what public health system there is in the United States into an issue. This is an approach that will be used at WH2020 for once something has become an an entitlement then it is exceedingly difficult and politically dangerous to take it away. In…

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The main loser from the MidTerms looks set to be “Big Pharma”

The main loser from the MidTerms looks set to be “Big Pharma”

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One of the things we take for granted in the UK is the cost of our prescription medications. This is all part of the NHS and the majority of patients are too young/old or have chronic conditions which mean that they don’t pay. Even those who don’t benefit from free prescriptions are not asked to pay the cost price of their medication but a fixed fee. This means the NHS as almost a monopoly buyer is able to secure even…

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Three Score and Ten? Has the NHS reached the end of its natural life?

Three Score and Ten? Has the NHS reached the end of its natural life?

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On July 5th the NHS marks its 70th birthday, and the occasion will be marked by a significant financial injection as a means of life support by the Conservative government. This should keep it breathing for a while yet, but like any ageing process we should consider whether the condition is terminal, and what the objective of continued treatment is. Is the NHS a model of health care fit for the 2020’s or are there better ways of organising it…

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