Regular readers will know that I've been very worried about the future of our wonderful NHS. I think our new Minister of Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting above with Keir Starmer, should take note.
The Freedom of Information Act has recently revealed the serious extent that Health Tourism is having on the NHS finances. If any political party wants to help the NHS, they should really take this problem seriously.
I often speak of the terrible waste of money in our National Health Service. We have far too many overpaid 'managers' who seem to spend money like water. And we all know that the system is being hugely abused by foreigners who fly into the UK specifically for free treatment.
We are now told that Health Tourism is costing the NHS a minimum of £100,000 a day. It has become a running joke in Southern A & E depts that foreign nationals turn up direct from Gatwick or Heathrow, complete with suitcases and travel bags. Most don't speak English and simply point at what they need to have 'fixed'.
Why doesn't one of those expensive bloody 'managers' tell them they have to pay-up first; a simple triage system at the A & E front door could stop these tourists at once. I've had to pay up-front in France even though I lived there; why shouldn't these people who visit England have to do the same?
There was a very famous case back in 2016, when a Nigerian woman called Priscilla (above) came direct from the airport to have quadruplets. The births and her after-care cost the NHS £500,000; not one penny of which was ever repaid. She really should have been detained until she, or her government, paid-up. She was just one of thousands, or tens of thousands, who come each year. One imagines that Priscilla simply flew home to Nigeria again once she was given the go-ahead. No wonder she's smiling in the photo!
I'm informed that the missing moneys could have paid for 5,500 Student Doctors, or 6,000 Nurses, or 30,000 Hip Replacements. The new Labour Government, and Wes Streeting in particular, may like to tackle this problem.
It's all very nice to say what a liberal and welcoming country we are, but when we know that our liberalism is being abused on such a massive scale, and our dear NHS apparently on the verge of collapse, isn't it time to say enough is enough!
The propaganda about the Tories ruining the NHS was a good vote winner for Labour, but the reality is that the Tories were spending record amounts on health amidst striking doctors, incompetent managers, and unbelievable waste.
Pull your bloody fingers out!
Having seen some of the NHS from the inside, another serious issue is with the amount of time spent in meetings - not just the realms of managers but considerable numbers of clinical staff who one would have thought would have been better employed in actually attending to patients. And nothing ever seems to be achieved through all of those meetings either.
ReplyDeleteIn the few times I've visited hospitals, all the nurses seemed to be gathered around computers filling in forms.
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