Backlog & Living With It

 I read this BBC story about the government's plans to tackle the NHS backlog with incredulity.

The plan seems to comprise tough targets. Anyone can set targets, but targets can't be met without either additional staff or accommodating the current staff levels into that target. It cannot be a target that's set to fail.

Now the government does say it will recruit new staff, but you can't just magic medical staff from thin air, especially when NHS staff are already leaving the profession in their droves. Gaining the necessary qualifications takes time - for a doctor it's six years and for a surgeon it's 16.

Given Johnson's predilection for blaming others, I suspect the NHS is being set up with a reason to sell it off.

I was also rather amazed at the words of a cancer sufferer who said; "It was just so unbelievable that they were allowing me to die because of Covid." So, what she was saying was they they were leaving her to die, at some time in the future and not necessarily, because other people were, well, in immediate danger of dying. You aren't hospitalised with Covid unless your case is rather serious.

She continued to say; "I'm not saying Covid isn't serious because it is. But cancer, heart disease, they don't go away - they get worse." But you're not dead and lots of other people, some 150,000, are.

There is an estimated 160,000 cancer deaths a year in the UK so, for many, it is a death sentence, regardless of procedures. That's more than the number that have died from Covid. However, if you get cancer you can't transmit it to someone else. You're not an epidemiological risk - your lifestyle and genetics are the prime risks. There again, the same can be said of Covid, as there are conditions which increase your risk of dying.

Whatever the prognosis, the role of the NHS is to treat those at greatest risk of dying immediately - nothing will change that. If that happens to be a Covid patient today, they you have to stay in the queue. Only privatisation of the NHS and the ability to pay can change that - is that fair?

Then there's Boris' latest ploy to save his miserable skin - getting rid of Covid restrictions when you test positive. That's going to have a wonderful effect on waiting lists (I'm being ironic). There's even talk of no longer making lateral flow tests free and scrapping the ONS data survey. He's on a different planet and trying to gaslight us that it's all over. His version of living with Covid is to welcome further infection and not even measure it. 

If it comes to a choice, I'd rather believe scientists - even if subsequently proved wrong - than a PM who has already amply and provably demonstrated that he's willing to sacrifice lives for his mates' wallets. At least the science has data behind it, whereas Boris has nothing but bluster and lies.

The latest joke about Boris is that he couldn't possibly have been at the Downing Street quiz, as no-one would want him on their team when he can't answer a straight question without going off at a tangent with lies.

Q: "Prime Minister - what's the capital of Sweden?"

A: "Er - er - fastest growing economy in the G7."

It' would be like a Two Ronnies sketch.