Conservatives opposed the founding of the NHS, built as it was on the offensive and stupid idea that all “humans” deserve certain health care standards as of right.
We are modern enough though. We’ve since taken the popularity of the NHS on board, even pretended to care about it. The poor public, misguided as ever by leftist brainwashing, scarce registers that it’s morally dubious at best for any system of provision to not be centred on making money. The invisible hand is enough to guide all, for it is close to the very hand of God.
Eventually a way was found, under the Major government, to channel public funds into private corporations. Here they more properly belong than to be under the archaic gaze of “democratic accountability”.
This scheme was called the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). It was also clever because it fed a public appetite for services matched only by the appetite to avoid paying for them. So the money was borrowed instead, somewhat like a mortgage. There are other ways for government to pay less in the long run and have more control, but that’s akin to communism, which is bad. And upfront government investment is often not realistic to the times. The NHS was built during the great national abundance that followed 6 years of luxurious warfare. Another war would surely be a good thing now, but I digress.
Even militant leftists like Blair couldn’t deny the good sense of PFI. Labour liked to refer to the process as”Public – Private Partnerships” – an astute way of sounding like a balanced approach. Yet the public pays more for less control, while private companies can focus on what’s best for them and all of us – making money! Labour could also trumpet investment while keeping the accounting “off balance”. Yes! Even stupid working class Labour can learn simple fraud techniques from great market thinkers if they put their mind to it.
Public opposition to PFI never got very far because it was easy to make the issue sound dull.
Thus a great entrepreneurial spirit was rewarded. Dynamic corporate execs learned to easily run rings round civil servants when drawing up contracts. The public were done a great service as wilfully inept government was charged well over the odds for projects that will still be being paid for decades hence. Aspects like maintenance contracts meant that companies with get-up-and-go could lock in hospitals to paying perhaps £300 to have a light bulb changed! £300 that could have otherwise gone towards keeping another useless old thing clinging to life long past the point of economic productivity!
Fast forward to 2010: After long years of turmoil under ceaseless initiatives from control-freak Labour, David Cameron announced there would be “no top-down re-organisation of the NHS”. Ever a man of his word, he and his adept cabinet saw to it that the NHS would be totally re organised. But not from the top down, mark you. The only top-down aspect was the decision-making process between corporations and cabinet, working in partnership, to in fact distribute money outward. Anyone willing to pay enough up front for an endless stream of public funds is welcome to have a go. It’s truly democratic for once, liberated from the dead hand of healthcare “professionals”, often gone stale from years of medical practice. As usual, donations to party funds are properly marked as being a sign of financial good judgement towards the bidding process, but there’s no need to be formal about that.
How the cabinet cheered and beat their fists on the table with great dignity when the biggest changes were rubber stamped. They weren’t just making their friends happy, but themselves too in many cases! Many of them had direct interests in this great initiative and only those steeped in the politics of envy would deny them just reward for their efforts.
Surprisingly, the Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation didn’t subject this common sense shift to any kind of tawdry “analysis” or critique.
Chair of the BBC Governors is the Conservative stalwart Chris Patten. He may be left leaning, pretty much Fabian if you ask me, but at least he has his own interests in a private health corporation. His benign influence at the corporation must have paid off. It is not the role of the BBC to go around asking questions of government. Where might that lead?
And now, the icing on the cake! Thanks to a quick move that wrong-footed the enemy, skipping past any nonsense such as scrutiny, this April will see just about every aspect of the NHS opened up to the glories and rigours of market provision! No more fuddy duddy obsession with “oversight”, all that stuff can be dumped in a bin marked “commercial confidentiality”
But alas, nothing is ever perfect. In our time away from steering the ship of state, a rancid curse grew within the NHS. The biggest threat of all was left to fester – I speak of nurses!! Did we just not see the wood for the trees?
It used to be that hiring nurses was very near the top of financial priorities in hospitals. Now, thankfully, the priority is paying back the complex myriad of PFI companies and consortia. It’s not for us to know who owns them; it’s a matter for the market. We can just be thankful that these nursing harpies no longer have the same malign influence they once did.
It’s odd to think that people might still go on about weird stuff like “human dignity” and other nebulous concepts that can’t even be measured with money, but it does happen. It’s been allowed to happen, and we are all guilty. We shied away from condemning nurses. but we must no longer. And we are further provoked to speak out – it turns out that many nurses have pensions they hope to live on. When challenged, they shamelessly sneer that they’ve paid for them! Though it makes the blood boil, it gets worse still: Nurses have now been caught going on holidays to enjoy themselves!
Fortune indeed that the press uncovered such scandal upon scandal exactly at this time. What if folk were to have fallen prey to nurse protests against needed reforms? What would nurses know about healthcare? Do they even do business modules on their courses?
While people have been dying in hospitals, nurses have had the nerve to blame over-stretched resources. They no longer know anything of compassion or humility. My anger prevents me from much exposition, suffice to say that nurses have become, as one, a greedy grabbing and grubby mass. What used to be a vocation is now a tacky vehicle for making an unchallenged living by performing outdated union-obsessive rituals including assisting doctors, or even pretending to look after people on a ward. And I’m no sexist of course, but can it be sheer coincidence that this most scurrilous of trades is populated predominantly by women?
The belated sober press coverage of the scourge of nursing has only scratched the surface. We must maximise awareness, the transfer of the NHS to capable corporate hands requires minimum attention and opposition. Deflection, distraction and blame must be our watchwords.
The efforts of philanthropists and moral leaders like Richard Desmond and Rupert Murdoch are a solid start, but I urge you all to take up the challenge. Get out to the streets, the workplace, the message boards and phone-in shows, everywhere you can! Denounce nurses with one voice!
Corporations may be taking things in the right direction, but nurses have not gone away – they are the cancer within!
True Blue Views 