For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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#1892666
The staffing of clinical and tecnical posts is a problem with a 5-10 year solution timeline. That appears to be “too complicated” for our elected representatives because it would span more than one administration. We desperately need cross party teams working on the important infrastructure planning with an agreement not to eff it up halfway through by all concerned. I would include energy supply, old age care, planning and homes supply along with training the medical staff we need.
But I’m not holding my breath.
MikeB, eltonioni, Charles Hunt and 1 others liked this
#1892685
Flyingfemme wrote:The staffing of clinical and tecnical posts is a problem with a 5-10 year solution timeline. That appears to be “too complicated” for our elected representatives because it would span more than one administration. We desperately need cross party teams working on the important infrastructure planning with an agreement not to eff it up halfway through by all concerned. I would include energy supply, old age care, planning and homes supply along with training the medical staff we need.
But I’m not holding my breath.


The NHS just needs privatising.

There, I said it.

The Air Ambulance / RNLI / Mountain Rescue / etc keep government money and policy away from them for a very good reason, and that's why they work so damned well. While ever NHS long term planning relies on the policy whims, fashions and fancies of here-today-gone-tomorrow politicians we'll never resolve the eternal conundrum of quality service delivery.

Government has the money to spend and the outcomes the voters desire. That's great but then they go getting involved in delivery. We need to make them stop worrying about how many many medics or administrators or buildings they need. HMG should concentrate on procurement, contract design and monitoring.

We keep being told that the NHS is jammed full of brilliant people who knows just what needs doing if only government would let them get on with it. Well, they need to step up, let go of the apron strings, and get on with it.


^^^ that's not politics, it's flipping obvious and the black hole of Covid might be the opportunity to put our health and social care onto a proper footing that's fit for the 21st century.


In other news: Djokovic won his appeal, was released from immigration prison and promptly rearrested. The Australian government really do know how to make their life difficult for no good reason.
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#1892691
Flyingfemme wrote:The staffing of clinical and tecnical posts is a problem with a 5-10 year solution timeline. That appears to be “too complicated” for our elected representatives because it would span more than one administration. We desperately need cross party teams ...


Indeed, but actions which predictably and predictedly damage such staffing over many years to come can be taken in an instant; often apparently driven by Ministers' whim, ideology, budget or media pressures, or some combination. And accurate predictions of the damage that will ensue may, if coming from the formal Opposition or perceived 'opposing interests', induce the relevant Minister(s) to dig heels in further so as not to be seen to 'U-turn'. The NHS staffing is merely one such example; others include social care, pensions, apprenticeships, education, military procurement .. This ethos makes 'cross party teams' very difficult to arrange, let alone heed.
#1892757
Paultheparaglider wrote:
eltonioni wrote:
In other news: Djokovic won his appeal, was released from immigration prison and promptly rearrested.


30 - 15. :wink:


Novakchok- the deadly Serbian nerve-wracking agent, so stealthy it can get past the stupidest of Aussie politicians….

I’ll probably get shot down for this one, but whilst discussing this matter over raclette and some rather fine Gewürztraminer with a commercial pilot mate the other night, I did mention the quality of the first emigrants to Australia weren’t exactly “top tier”…. :oops:
User avatar
By StratoTramp
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1892760
Suppose the following quote cuts both ways, depending on your feelings towards convicts or the police.

But I think the opposite is the problem at the moment. :lol: people going back to their prison guard roots. I don't really know anything about Clive James. But he said this...

“The problem with Australians is not that so many of them are descended from convicts, but that so many of them are descended from prison officers.”

Very fitting for their current predicament.

To any Australians on the forum please don't take offence from this whining pom. :lol:
#1892770
@StratoTramp - if you have the time, immerse yourself into the world of Clive James.

It’ll be instructive on the state of TV and popular culture in the U.K. and Japan in the 80s and 90s.

His written journalism was at a higher level clearly - but his TV output was with the same impishly inquisitive touch, and with an underlying strata of hard-core intellectual sarcasm (if you got it) that made him different.

I’d studied hard for my 6th Yr Studies English exam- but went weeell off-piste on the day and answered one major part of the exam based on an article Clive James had published just before.

I guess my examiner was also a fan of Clive James….as my result was certainly well above what I should have gotten based purely on the question :shock:
#1892783
StratoTramp wrote:I don't really know anything about Clive James. But he said this...

“The problem with Australians is not that so many of them are descended from convicts, but that so many of them are descended from prison officers.”


Oh you should, really you should. Try Unreliable Memoirs to give yourself a feeling for the man then, after that, read anything he ever wrote. I'd read his shopping list.
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#1892845
Jim Jones wrote:
eltonioni wrote:[

The NHS just needs privatising.

.


The core purpose of private health care is to generate profit (see USA health model, BT, Railtrack, BAE systems)

I deliver treatment via a 3rd sector charity, non profit. I can't see how a profit making motive would improve it


@Jim Jones - there’s a fundamental difference between generating profit, and maximising profit.

I can understand that in the interest of efficiency, being at least “profitable” could be an objective in healthcare.

Maximising profit off of healthcare - that’s quickly into Godwin territory.
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User avatar
By Pete L
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1892996
OCB wrote:
Paultheparaglider wrote:
eltonioni wrote:
In other news: Djokovic won his appeal, was released from immigration prison and promptly rearrested.


30 - 15. :wink:


Novakchok- the deadly Serbian nerve-wracking agent, so stealthy it can get past the stupidest of Aussie politicians….

I’ll probably get shot down for this one, but whilst discussing this matter over raclette and some rather fine Gewürztraminer with a commercial pilot mate the other night, I did mention the quality of the first emigrants to Australia weren’t exactly “top tier”…. :oops:


That marks the difference between Australia and New Zealand.
User avatar
By StratoTramp
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1893000
OCB wrote:
Jim Jones wrote:
eltonioni wrote:[

The NHS just needs privatising.

.


The core purpose of private health care is to generate profit (see USA health model, BT, Railtrack, BAE systems)

I deliver treatment via a 3rd sector charity, non profit. I can't see how a profit making motive would improve it


@Jim Jones - there’s a fundamental difference between generating profit, and maximising profit.

I can understand that in the interest of efficiency, being at least “profitable” could be an objective in healthcare.

Maximising profit off of healthcare - that’s quickly into Godwin territory.


It's a difficult one as there is the effect of the universities - but would love to see the NHS designing a CT or MRI machine... You need the profit motive and big money to develop these things.

Though... was university education paid for in the EMI days? Or more of a privately funded endeavour as it is today? 1960s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_o ... tomography

Private enterprise does a lot for healthcare. Like OCB says it can be taken to far, but it is needed. Doubt we would have any of the vaccines if it was state funded. Smart people need to be rewarded. Saying it's for "the people" is rarely enough! (I know antibiotic research is underfunded, as a result of no 'easy' payoff).

We see continuously on this thread that "other people" are "idiots" (less so now johnm posting less). :lol:

But if this belief is so commonly held... you are more likely to convince people with working for profit rather than working for than "other idiot douche people".

My view is humanity is underrated. People are concomitantly smart and dumb in different dimensions. You would hire Elon to make you a spaceship but not paint a Picasso and vice versa. Almost everyone has something to offer.

Outside of a war environment I don't think the state can innovate. Even in a war environment it is mostly private enterprise. That said "cost plus" in the cold war and the like (unlimited bill to government) :lol: I am tying myself in knots.

I do volunteer about 40-80 hours a year to an archery club. But that's about the extent of my good will to other people even if I personally don't think they are all "idiots" and are "good people" instead. :lol: Complete oxymoron but if you paid me to volunteer I would do a lot more. :lol: I.e. I see some value in providing a public good, irrespective of costs... to a point.
#1893143
BBC's 'More or less' is back today, with some apposite topics:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001395l

"The pandemic seems to be entering a new phase as Omicron has taken hold. Is it milder? And how might we make decisions based on the latest data?

Predictions that lockdowns might lead to a baby boom have proven wrong - in fact fertility is falling.

We re-examine a baffling claim about the number of children being abducted every year in the US after claims by a Republican politician on social media, and we run our statistical measuring tape up the inside leg of the government’s promise to give everyone a booster jab before New Year’s Day. "
By MikeE
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1893155
A bit of spin there by the BBC. As far as I'm aware the Government promised to 'offer' everyone a booster jab before New Year's Day rather than 'give' everyone a booster. The offer, I think, was achieved. 'Giving' everyone a jab was unachievable.

Regards

Mike
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