Unfortunately, I Told You So

[pod]

In news today it's reported that in Scotland our NHS Trusts have had to step in to run 42 GP practices to help get them out of difficulty after the practices found it impossible to recruit new GPs to replace those leaving practice. Their report says that 2million Scots are now registered to practices when there are a staffing shortage of GPs. Yet the SNP say there is no crisis in our NHS. REALLY

Then we discover that absenteeism in the Police Scotland call centre that failed to report the M9 crash was running at 10.7% with staff having to work some 8000 hours of overtime to cover staff recruitment shortages. Yet the SNP have ordered an enquiry into call handling procedures.

What a joke our Scottish Government is! Running our devolved services into the ground whilst wasting our money on a referendum and a bridge over the Forth that wasn't needed.

Thought that would suit your agenda for private health care.

[2becks]

Thought that would suit your agenda for private health care.

As I have mentioned many times, I have the fat pipe-fitter on ignore, but since you quoted him I saw that he is making some comment on Scotand's NHS Trusts, I didn't read beyond that but I did think it worthwhile to mention that Scotland does not have NHS trusts.

[nosferatu]

No doubt the resident Nazi will suggest a shower cubicle.

You are suggesting a shower cubicle?

[nosferatu]

Who in the SNP has said that they WANT the NHS to be f**ked and WANT people to die? Nobody? They're obviously not as f**ked up as you then.

Again, where have I defended anything? You really have no grasp of the English language at all.

^^^^ on the verge of tears!

Meltdown!

Keep buying those premium bonds ernie!

[oaksoft]

Out of just under 1000 GP practices, there are around 40 under the direction of NHS boards with 92 GP vacancies.

Anyone calling this a crisis needs to get some perspective.

Hysterical pish TBH.

The only possible way to avoid occasional staffing shortfalls this is to produce more GPs than we actually need at any one time.

You can be sure there would be heavy criticism if that happened - exactly as happened when we started producing more teachers than we needed to solve exactly the same problem in education.

Edited July 16, 2015 by oaksoft

[smcc]

In news today it's reported that in Scotland our NHS Trusts have had to step in to run 42 GP practices to help get them out of difficulty after the practices found it impossible to recruit new GPs to replace those leaving practice. Their report says that 2million Scots are now registered to practices when there are a staffing shortage of GPs. Yet the SNP say there is no crisis in our NHS. REALLY

Then we discover that absenteeism in the Police Scotland call centre that failed to report the M9 crash was running at 10.7% with staff having to work some 8000 hours of overtime to cover staff recruitment shortages. Yet the SNP have ordered an enquiry into call handling procedures.

What a joke our Scottish Government is! Running our devolved services into the ground whilst wasting our money on a referendum and a bridge over the Forth that wasn't needed.

Here we go again!!!!

I suggested in an earlier post that you should take your head out of your a**e and raise your horizon before posting. It seems that you have not taken my advice.

Things are no better in in England where, I am sure, the SNP have no responsibility for the police or the health service.

"Scores of GP surgeries in London are under threat of closure, potentially displacing hundreds of thousands of “refugee patients”, because of a growing shortage of family doctors, research shows.

Up to 140 of the capital’s 1,400 GP practices could shut over the next three years, leaving fewer surgeries looking after increasing numbers of patients, according to a survey by Londonwide local medical committees.

The closures are stark fresh evidence of the escalating shrinkage of GP practices across England as a whole. NHS figures show that 656 surgeries have been merged, taken over or closed completely since 2010.

The trend has sparked concern that patients will lose their longstanding relationships with their GP and have to find a new surgery and travel further for an appointment.

Of 431 surgeries polled, 43 (10%) said they were considering handing back their contract to NHS England within the next three years because a GP colleague was due to retire during that time. If the same proportion was replicated across the 909 other surgeries that did not respond, almost 140 could shut.

'We've done all we could': Islington GP explains why she and her colleagues are quitting

In all, 302 of the 431 practices said that at least one of their doctors is due to retire by 2018 and 53% are already trying to recruit a GP or practice nurse.

Increasing workload, financial problems, the growing complexity of patients’ illnesses and the pressure to work ever longer hours are also prompting more GPs to retire. That raises serious doubt about David Cameron’s key post-election pledges to hire 5,000 more family doctors and let patients see a GP between 8am and 8pm seven days a week by 2020.

“This is a three-year timebomb. In the next three years London could lose as many as 10% of its GP practices. For patients that is an unsustainable rate of loss,” said Michelle Drage, chief executive of Londonwide LMCs – which represents more than 7,000 GPs and 1,300 surgeries in 27 of London’s 32 boroughs.

If all 43 practices considering terminating their contract ended up doing so, an estimated 337,979 patients would lose their GP.

“Patients will definitely miss these surgeries when they go. They are at risk of losing their GP services and relationships with family doctors built up over many decades in some cases. In London there’s going to be fewer and fewer surgeries trying to cope with more and more patients at a time when the population is growing,” said Drage.

“Patients will get new GPs who they have to start to get to know, and they’ll see practices that are even more stretched than they already are. And there will be added stress on GPs and practice nurses who have to deal with patients who have been displaced – refugee patients. They end up moving around local surgeries and having to tell their stories all over again because a practice they have been with for many years has suddenly shut because the doctor has gone.”

The Royal College of GPs, meanwhile, warned that the closures could affect millions of patients, with some denied a GP of their own altogether.

“It is shocking that we have reached a situation where so many GP practices – the lifeblood of local communities – have closed or are under threat of closure,” said Maureen Baker, the RCGP chair. “Unless drastic action is taken, thousands, if not millions, of patients could be forced to travel miles to their nearest GP practice or be left stranded with no family doctor at all.”

Doubts linger over Jeremy Hunt's pledge for 5,000 new GPs

Surgeries faced with an influx when a nearby practice closes may struggle to cope, warned Baker. “We know that in many areas practices are closing because there are not enough GPs to run them and this can cause a domino effect of piling the pressure on neighbouring surgeries, particularly in remote and rural areas and areas of high deprivation.”

In London, 117 surgeries closed while only 40 opened between January 2010 and the end of August 2014. Another 18 shut and just one opened in the nine months between last August and the end of May this year, according to data from the NHS’s Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Closures, which include mergers and new operators taking over practices where the GPs have given it up, have far outstripped the creation of new premises each year since 2011.

NHS England and the Department of Health refused to respond directly to the escalating closures and impact on patients’ access to GP services. A spokeswoman said: “All NHS patients wanting to register with a GP practice are guaranteed to be able to do so. As GPs move to create wider networks of care, like the RCGP, we fully expect more practices to come together to offer a wider range of services. However there is also no doubt that we also need to increase the investment in general practice, boost GP numbers and expand team working.”

"In 2010 police forces in England were told to cut their budgets by 20% by 2015. Officer numbers have been reduced by 10,000, or 7%, since 2010, according to government figures analysed by the Bureau.

Nearly a fifth of forces have lost more than 10% of their police officers between 2010 and 2012, with three forces – Warwickshire, Cleveland and Derbyshire – losing over 12%. Derbyshire lost 254 officers, Cleveland 204 and Warwickshire 122.

Staffing cuts have hit even harder for ‘civilian’ support staff, with over 12,000 jobs lost between 2010 and 2012. This is equivalent to 16% of their total number. Over a quarter of England and Wales police forces have lost more than 20% of their civilian staff. A handful of forces have plugged the gap by outsourcing to private companies.

The hardest hit force was Northamptonshire, which has lost 24% of its support staff as well as 9% of its police officers. Derbyshire, one of the forces that has lost the most police officers, has also lost 21% of its support staff. Neither have outsourced services, though Derbyshire has started to collaborate with neighbouring forces."

[oaksoft]

Never noticed this earlier, I've got him on "ignore" on the PC. "Ignore" doesn't work on the phone.

I wonder why he is replying to one of my posts when he said that he wasn't going to reply to me unless I posted something directly to him. He seems to be a very untrustworthy chap. Maybe he will reply to this post, even though it isn't directed at him.

If he thinks that I am in meltdown then he obviously didn't read my post in the "condescending voice" it was written in. Just like this post.

He is still laughing at his own shit jokes though.

Not just laughing but seemingly rolling about the floor laughing.

Apparently he can't get over that tedious ernie joke.

[Guest TPAFKATS]

As I have mentioned many times, I have the fat pipe-fitter on ignore, but since you quoted him I saw that he is making some comment on Scotand's NHS Trusts, I didn't read beyond that but I did think it worthwhile to mention that Scotland does not have NHS trusts.

Isn't it somewhere between 5 -10 years ago that the trusts were replaced?

Coincidentally around the time that snp began running things at Holyrood?

You'd think that someone who hates everything that snp do, would know this kind of stuff?

[2becks]

Isn't it somewhere between 5 -10 years ago that the trusts were replaced?

Coincidentally around the time that snp began running things at Holyrood?

You'd think that someone who hates everything that snp do, would know this kind of stuff?

Erm., no we never had trusts in Scotland at all.

[Guest TPAFKATS]

Erm., no we never had trusts in Scotland at all.

We did, trust me...

[Stuart Dickson]

Here we go again!!!!

I suggested in an earlier post that you should take your head out of your a**e and raise your horizon before posting. It seems that you have not taken my advice.

Things are no better in in England where, I am sure, the SNP have no responsibility for the police or the health service.

"Scores of GP surgeries in London are under threat of closure, potentially displacing hundreds of thousands of “refugee patients”, because of a growing shortage of family doctors, research shows.

Up to 140 of the capital’s 1,400 GP practices could shut over the next three years, leaving fewer surgeries looking after increasing numbers of patients, according to a survey by Londonwide local medical committees.

The closures are stark fresh evidence of the escalating shrinkage of GP practices across England as a whole. NHS figures show that 656 surgeries have been merged, taken over or closed completely since 2010.

The trend has sparked concern that patients will lose their longstanding relationships with their GP and have to find a new surgery and travel further for an appointment.

Of 431 surgeries polled, 43 (10%) said they were considering handing back their contract to NHS England within the next three years because a GP colleague was due to retire during that time. If the same proportion was replicated across the 909 other surgeries that did not respond, almost 140 could shut.

'We've done all we could': Islington GP explains why she and her colleagues are quitting

In all, 302 of the 431 practices said that at least one of their doctors is due to retire by 2018 and 53% are already trying to recruit a GP or practice nurse.

Increasing workload, financial problems, the growing complexity of patients’ illnesses and the pressure to work ever longer hours are also prompting more GPs to retire. That raises serious doubt about David Cameron’s key post-election pledges to hire 5,000 more family doctors and let patients see a GP between 8am and 8pm seven days a week by 2020.

“This is a three-year timebomb. In the next three years London could lose as many as 10% of its GP practices. For patients that is an unsustainable rate of loss,” said Michelle Drage, chief executive of Londonwide LMCs – which represents more than 7,000 GPs and 1,300 surgeries in 27 of London’s 32 boroughs.

If all 43 practices considering terminating their contract ended up doing so, an estimated 337,979 patients would lose their GP.

“Patients will definitely miss these surgeries when they go. They are at risk of losing their GP services and relationships with family doctors built up over many decades in some cases. In London there’s going to be fewer and fewer surgeries trying to cope with more and more patients at a time when the population is growing,” said Drage.

“Patients will get new GPs who they have to start to get to know, and they’ll see practices that are even more stretched than they already are. And there will be added stress on GPs and practice nurses who have to deal with patients who have been displaced – refugee patients. They end up moving around local surgeries and having to tell their stories all over again because a practice they have been with for many years has suddenly shut because the doctor has gone.”

The Royal College of GPs, meanwhile, warned that the closures could affect millions of patients, with some denied a GP of their own altogether.

“It is shocking that we have reached a situation where so many GP practices – the lifeblood of local communities – have closed or are under threat of closure,” said Maureen Baker, the RCGP chair. “Unless drastic action is taken, thousands, if not millions, of patients could be forced to travel miles to their nearest GP practice or be left stranded with no family doctor at all.”

Doubts linger over Jeremy Hunt's pledge for 5,000 new GPs

Surgeries faced with an influx when a nearby practice closes may struggle to cope, warned Baker. “We know that in many areas practices are closing because there are not enough GPs to run them and this can cause a domino effect of piling the pressure on neighbouring surgeries, particularly in remote and rural areas and areas of high deprivation.”

In London, 117 surgeries closed while only 40 opened between January 2010 and the end of August 2014. Another 18 shut and just one opened in the nine months between last August and the end of May this year, according to data from the NHS’s Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Closures, which include mergers and new operators taking over practices where the GPs have given it up, have far outstripped the creation of new premises each year since 2011.

NHS England and the Department of Health refused to respond directly to the escalating closures and impact on patients’ access to GP services. A spokeswoman said: “All NHS patients wanting to register with a GP practice are guaranteed to be able to do so. As GPs move to create wider networks of care, like the RCGP, we fully expect more practices to come together to offer a wider range of services. However there is also no doubt that we also need to increase the investment in general practice, boost GP numbers and expand team working.”

"In 2010 police forces in England were told to cut their budgets by 20% by 2015. Officer numbers have been reduced by 10,000, or 7%, since 2010, according to government figures analysed by the Bureau.

Nearly a fifth of forces have lost more than 10% of their police officers between 2010 and 2012, with three forces – Warwickshire, Cleveland and Derbyshire – losing over 12%. Derbyshire lost 254 officers, Cleveland 204 and Warwickshire 122.

Staffing cuts have hit even harder for ‘civilian’ support staff, with over 12,000 jobs lost between 2010 and 2012. This is equivalent to 16% of their total number. Over a quarter of England and Wales police forces have lost more than 20% of their civilian staff. A handful of forces have plugged the gap by outsourcing to private companies.

The hardest hit force was Northamptonshire, which has lost 24% of its support staff as well as 9% of its police officers. Derbyshire, one of the forces that has lost the most police officers, has also lost 21% of its support staff. Neither have outsourced services, though Derbyshire has started to collaborate with neighbouring forces."

I don't get the point you are trying to make. The SNP have total control of these services in Scotland and yet they are f**king them up major style. Why you insist on comparing records with England is beyond me. You'd be just as well comparing Scotland's Health Service with that of Syria - actually that's probably quite a good comparison since that's what staff are saying the new super hospital in Govan looks like on a daily basis.

[Stuart Dickson]

Alex Salmond was being his usual fanny like self on This Week last night. Apparently his solution to the Greek debt crisis would be for the UK Government to give the Elgin Marbles back plus "£several billions". That's nice of him. I'm sure he won't mind donating it out of the Scottish budget for next year. He gave his "figure" having been asked three times by Andrew Neill having already stated that the latest Euro bail out of £85bn won't solve the underlying issues. Clearly the former RBS economist who has f**ked up on every topic to do with finance since he became a politician is still struggling with the concept of having to balance the books. Fortunately Michael Portillo showed a far stronger grasp of the situation when he said the only workable solution was for Greece to exit the Euro.

Also on the subject of bullying, where Michael Portillo rightly laid the charge at Salmonds door over the way the Natsi's campaigned during the referendum, Salmond attempted to deflect in the most ridiculous of manners talking about government retreats.

On the plus side his parliamentary moment of the year was similar to mine - apparently it was the day after the Scottish Referendum when he stepped down as First Minister. Oh how I celebrated that moment too.

Edited July 17, 2015 by Stuart Dickson

[salmonbuddie]

On the plus side his parliamentary moment of the year was similar to mine - apparently it was the day after the Scottish Referendum when he stepped down as First Minister. Oh how I celebrated that moment too.

You must be ecstatic at the way the SNP vote collapsed after he stepped down, too, that must be your parliamentary moment of this year.

[salmonbuddie]

So, to sum up, according to Stud, the NHS is fùcked in Scotland. Evidence has been provided showing the NHS is also fùcked in England.

Can we all see the common link? StuD? Anyone?

[2becks]

We did, trust me...

After a brief google search I believe they were disbanded by the previous lib/lab administration.

Firstly, TS you are neither funny not correct. Cockles can you please point me to some of these websites you found which have this mis-information?

[salmonbuddie]

Is it cause I is black?

Of course it is, I'm a natsi and therefore, by association (if not definition), I'm a racist. Easy, really.

[smcc]

I don't get the point you are trying to make. The SNP have total control of these services in Scotland and yet they are f**king them up major style. Why you insist on comparing records with England is beyond me. You'd be just as well comparing Scotland's Health Service with that of Syria - actually that's probably quite a good comparison since that's what staff are saying the new super hospital in Govan looks like on a daily basis.

If you don't get the point that your hated SNP are making less of a mess of these services than your beloved Tory party in England you are even f**king stupider than I thought.

[Guest TPAFKATS]

Firstly, TS you are neither funny not correct. Cockles can you please point me to some of these websites you found which have this mis-information?

Humour is subjective. Unfortunately not everyone on here finds me hilarious ;)

It was also an attempt to show that I wasnt engaging in an argument over your claim.

I would however point out that NHS organisations in Scotland called themselves Trusts on their letterheads and signage.

Edited July 17, 2015 by TPAFKATS

[bluto]

So, to sum up, according to Stud, the NHS is fùcked in Scotland. Evidence has been provided showing the NHS is also fùcked in England.

Can we all see the common link? StuD? Anyone?

Politicians? Whether Jock or not?

People not wanting (or able) to pay sufficient taxes to fund the system that they might best fancy?

I have to say that using the English deflection tactic in this instance does not make the Scottish politicians look any better, nor does it defuse his argument. (Nor does constant rehashing of his past follies make it an edifying read.... )

[faraway saint]

Humour is subjective. Unfortunately no one on here finds me hilarious ;)

It was also an attempt to show that I wasnt engaging in an argument over your claim.

I would however point out that NHS organisations in Scotland called themselves Trusts on their letterheads and signage.

Agreed.

PS You're not alone.

[2becks]

I read it on a Scottish Parliament pdf document.

Google NHS Scotland trusts.

I can't provide the link from this phone.

I stand corrected the term 'trusts' was used until 2004, although what they were was very different from the use of the term in England in Wales, they were subordinate bodies within the boards. Apologies.

[Guest TPAFKATS]

Politicians? Whether Jock or not?

People not wanting (or able) to pay sufficient taxes to fund the system that they might best fancy?

I have to say that using the English deflection tactic in this instance does not make the Scottish politicians look any better, nor does it defuse his argument. (Nor does constant rehashing of his past follies make it an edifying read.... )

The comparison with NHS in England, or Wales is relevant due to how these services are funded.

There is also a shortage of GPs in these services too. GPs are also trained and governed through a UK wide body?

Not sure what it has to do with the police not acting on a call about a car in a field though?

[shull]

Lots up early today to talk politics.

Scintillating ZZzzzzzzzzzzzz

[TopCat]

Alex Salmond was being his usual fanny like self on This Week last night. Apparently his solution to the Greek debt crisis would be for the UK Government to give the Elgin Marbles back plus "£several billions". That's nice of him. I'm sure he won't mind donating it out of the Scottish budget for next year. He gave his "figure" having been asked three times by Andrew Neill having already stated that the latest Euro bail out of £85bn won't solve the underlying issues. Clearly the former RBS economist who has f**ked up on every topic to do with finance since he became a politician is still struggling with the concept of having to balance the books. Fortunately Michael Portillo showed a far stronger grasp of the situation when he said the only workable solution was for Greece to exit the Euro.

Also on the subject of bullying, where Michael Portillo rightly laid the charge at Salmonds door over the way the Natsi's campaigned during the referendum, Salmond attempted to deflect in the most ridiculous of manners talking about government retreats.

On the plus side his parliamentary moment of the year was similar to mine - apparently it was the day after the Scottish Referendum when he stepped down as First Minister. Oh how I celebrated that moment too.

I seen that too. Pretty embarrassing performance from Salmond all round, I remember he used to be relatively good on tv but he's not anymore.

Andrew Neil tore him to shreds on the Greek issue and Portillo ended up laughing at his bizarre attempt to avoid the point on bullying.

[Guest TPAFKATS]

Wasn't Salmonds best performance however Neil just kept shouting 'how much money'.

Portillo claimed there was no bullying in thatchers gov, then in next sentence described how he was humiliated on more than one occasion in front of the whole cabinet.

Must be a school thing...