Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Max,

Cynic knows all about the NHS.

He won't believe it, because it does't suit him to.

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent
The Guardian, Tuesday 25 February 2014

The Workers’ party? That’s us, say Tories in bid to rebrand
Conservative party chairman Grant Shapps will say: "The Conservatives are the Workers’ party and we are on your side.”

They are two words David Cameron's ancestors would more often have put together to describe a summer shindig for the employees on their estates.

But the words "Workers' party" will now be used to describe the Conservatives as Cameron tries to rid the Tories of their image as the guardians of the rich.

Grant Shapps, the party chairman, will stand alongside Sir John Major, the former champion of the "classless society", to announce that the Tories are now determined to show they want to spread – and not defend – privilege.............................ends

Denis Skinner ‏@BolsoverBeast 15m
Traditionally, the word oxymoron is used in cases where the contradiction is deliberate.

"Moronic" Grant Shapps?

i think (know) there is much wrong with NHS and i never ever said otherwise, though of course it suits fossy and his buddies to pretend and disseminate otherwise

however, unlike our armchair experts here, i do not think there is any easy fix - throwing several barrowloads of money at it, sure isn't the answer ...... the malaise has been growing for decades, is certainly no one party's "fault", and of course is getting worse, at least in part because of our ageing population

That graphic about healthcare spending is very misleading. Sure the US spends more per capita than any other country, but that's primarily because routine healthcare costs are two or three times as high in the US as elsewhere in the world. That's what Obamacare is all about - trying to make it affordable for all US citizens.

Anyway, if US healthcare is shit hot, how do the chip-on-their-shoulder, muppet red flag flyers and Labour activists explain this graphic? It's also taken from OECD data, just like the one above.



And here's another graphic which demonstrates just how expensive US healthcare really is.

Iain Duncan Smith MP ‏@IDS_MP
Now the floods have receded it is vital you check on neighbours. The high water levels may have hidden a spare bedroom that needs taxing.

Talking of health care TORY SLEAZE YET AGAIN...........

The end of patient confidentiality as NHS information is sold to insurers
24 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by Mike Sivier in Business, Conservative Party, Corruption, Cost of living, Health, Liberal Democrats, People, Politics, UK


Americanised healthcare: It is appropriate that the only appropriate image I could find features dollars instead of pounds - because it is clear that the Tory government is changing the NHS into an Americanised insurance-based service.
Americanised healthcare: It is appropriate that the only appropriate image I could find features dollars instead of pounds – because it is clear that the Tory government is changing the NHS into an Americanised insurance-based service.

Confidential information on NHS patients has been sold to insurance companies who used it in combination with information from credit rating agencies to identify customers and “refine” their premiums – increasing the costs of policies for thousands of customers, despite all the Tory-led government’s assurances to the contrary.

According to the Daily Telegraph, “a major UK insurance company… was able to obtain 13 years of hospital data – covering 47 million patients.

“As a result they recommended an increase in the costs of policies for thousands of customers last year.”

The revelation comes only days after plans to sell the confidential medical information of every NHS patient in England were put on hold amid a public outcry.

The care.data system, also called variously the General Patient Extraction Service (GPES) or the Health and Social Care Information Centre, was dreamed up as a money-spinning device by Jeremy Hunt’s Department of Health.

The aim is that, if you are an NHS patient in England, your GP will be forced to provide your confidential records, showing every medical condition you have ever had and providing intimate details of your current state of health, to a huge national database.

From there, your information may be sold on to private healthcare and pharmaceutical companies for “research”. The government has said the information would be “pseudonymised”, in an attempt to reassure you that you cannot be identified from the information to be provided to outside organisations.

Only last Friday the BBC was reporting that critics of the scheme were “scaremongering”.

The Corporation – which has failed to report the new development – quoted Tory MP George Freeman, founder of Patients4Data, which represents charities and drug companies (and not patients, apparently) as follows: “We cannot let opponents peddling scaremongering myths stop patients benefiting from this quiet revolution of modern medicine.”

And last month, NHS England categorically stated: “No data will be made available for the purposes of selling or administering any kind of insurance.”

Vox Political has made it clear from the outset that this is not true, and in fact it will be entirely possible to trace your medical information back to you. Now we have proof.

NHS England has delayed compiling the new database of English NHS patients until the autumn. You could help sink the scheme altogether, if you don’t want your government – and your NHS – to sell your information into the wrong hands. Just opt out of the data sharing scheme, using a form designed by the medConfidential website.

Make no mistake – the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats in Parliament have betrayed you.

They have already sold hospital patients’ information to insurance companies, and there can be no doubt that the intention is to do the same with GPs’ confidential records, with a consequential increase in insurance costs to people across the country.

They are turning your beloved National Health Service into an insurance-based scheme, on the same lines as the vastly more expensive American system.

They have been lying to you.

They intend to profit from selling your information – to companies that intend to profit by using it against you.

Are you going to sit there and let them?

The end of patient confidentiality as NHS information is sold to insurers
not so
however, that is certainly the fear which is one of the reasons why this scheme has been delayed for several months
and of course, always provided your local practice even gives you that info as they are meant to do -some, including ours, needed to be kicked - it is easy to opt out

Hilary,

With your ability and a little time you should be able to answer your own question.

Yes, but you have to write to them.


How many people will do that?

max - you forget that fossy has never ever answered a question in his life ..... he can only pontificate and c+p cartoons

Just to get the NHS data sharing into perspective, they are not sharing data identified to a specific patient with address. It is sold as demographic data at the postcode level. Data like that can be bought from lots of sources. It is used for demographic profiling together with Acorn, Mosaic, Finpin and other systems.

It enables insurance companies to look at their premiums for certain demographic groups with the likelyhood of certain diseases. I used to buy similar data for direct mail for finance companies, insurance and banks.

The use of the data is exactly the same as the crime figures by postcode. The insurance companies use the data to calculate your home or car insurance. It is a method of assessing risk.

hays - if that is the case, then NHS should be shot .... medical info, as with legal info is meant to be totally confidential ..... if i want my medical records to passed on indiscriminately, as is effectively the case you outline, then that should be solely my prerogative and specifically to whom i will allow this info to be given ..... an insurance company would not fall into any category with whom i would want to share my medical history

Manuel,

If would think it would be impossible for anyone to be able add to the personal knowledge bank of someone who is so worldly wise and insightful as yourself.

---------

They still get YOUR CONFIDENTIAL details. Tory Scandal.

According to the Daily Telegraph, “a major UK insurance company… was able to obtain 13 years of hospital data – covering 47 million patients.

“As a result they recommended an increase in the costs of policies for thousands of customers last year.”