Current Affairs Liz Truss

[neil999]

If mortgage rates go up due to no windfall tax, she will lose middle England and labour will win a landslide even with boring old middle of the road keir....

 

[peteblue]

Boris and his madcap.... I stopped reading after that, on how times change and people's opinions of Churchillian figures. Funny how none of these criticisms were offered during Boris's Churchillian reign, in fact you wouldn't have a bad word said about him.. Morning Pete do you now liken Truss to Boudica yet. lol

I know, but I’ve been moaning about it for ages in the pub. Anyway, until the Return of The King, long live the Queen…

 

[dublinbluenose]

I know, but I’ve been moaning about it for ages in the pub. Anyway, until the Return of The King, long live the Queen…

He has no chance of re-election in Uxbridge, or at least a very good chance he will lose his seat.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

From the inside looking out, there seems to be whole host of reasons why spending continues to increase.

Infrastructure is not great and the cost of renewal of older buildings and moves to new sites create significant cost - which I suspect is why the 2020 figure is so high (resulting from the adaptation of buildings for Covid).

Lots of procurement is made on a false economy basis - it saves now but doubles at a later date - IT infrastructure particularly.

Procurement more generally could be improved and more favourable conditions allowed for NHS in regard to it's procurement rules.

Staff churn is a big issue, particularly in providers.

I'm not sure how much research has been undertaken recently in calculating the oblique cost of reduced social care provision on the NHS, but I think the NHS routinely plugs gaps created resulting from lower social care spending and provision.

Lack of preventative healthcare in the UK and also lack of access for the public to healthier lifestyles. I would include education in that.

I could go on, but as we've talked about before it's multifaceted and I'm not sure it's as simple as "tax the rich and the NHS will work"

Indeed, the lack of capacity in social care is a significant issue, and it's a pot of money that is obviously not as politically protected as the NHS so it hasn't fared as well in recent years, so we have the slightly bonkers situation of a lot of people stuck in hospital because they have nowhere to be discharged to at one end, and at the other more people going to hospital in the first place due to a lack of capacity to provide (cheaper) care at an earlier point.

Hospitals are generally what gets used when the poop hits the fan in terms of our health, and they're overwhelmingly the most expensive part of the health system, and yet we focus almost exclusively on increasing the supply of hospital treatment and not on reducing demand for it in the first place, which with costs rising and the population getting older is the only rational approach.

I've got zero confidence in things ever improving though as there are well-documented staffing issues, so manpower is extremely stretched (in clinical and community), budgets are similarly stretched, and the target culture means that providers have to keep focusing on business as usual rather than rethinking their approach.

I've done a bit of work over the years in terms of health innovation, and it's impossible. Any new technology will inevitably require medical staff, support staff, possibly patients/carers to get involved to try things out, which obviously requires a bit of time and money, none of which is available because they have to spend every ounce they have meeting targets. If the pilot is successful, then new workflows etc. are developed so it's quite probable that things will get worse before they get better as people adjust. Again, the targets don't really account for this. You can then perhaps imagine how likely it is is that a successful project in one hospital/location will then be replicated elsewhere because that will require people to share their knowledge, giving up time and money they're not afforded. So you have a culture whereby pilot projects are everywhere, but they never get delivered and never scale up because there is absolutely no slack built into the system.

 

[Jebus_lives]

Indeed, the lack of capacity in social care is a significant issue, and it's a pot of money that is obviously not as politically protected as the NHS so it hasn't fared as well in recent years, so we have the slightly bonkers situation of a lot of people stuck in hospital because they have nowhere to be discharged to at one end, and at the other more people going to hospital in the first place due to a lack of capacity to provide (cheaper) care at an earlier point.

Hospitals are generally what gets used when the poop hits the fan in terms of our health, and they're overwhelmingly the most expensive part of the health system, and yet we focus almost exclusively on increasing the supply of hospital treatment and not on reducing demand for it in the first place, which with costs rising and the population getting older is the only rational approach.

I've got zero confidence in things ever improving though as there are well-documented staffing issues, so manpower is extremely stretched (in clinical and community), budgets are similarly stretched, and the target culture means that providers have to keep focusing on business as usual rather than rethinking their approach.

I've done a bit of work over the years in terms of health innovation, and it's impossible. Any new technology will inevitably require medical staff, support staff, possibly patients/carers to get involved to try things out, which obviously requires a bit of time and money, none of which is available because they have to spend every ounce they have meeting targets. If the pilot is successful, then new workflows etc. are developed so it's quite probable that things will get worse before they get better as people adjust. Again, the targets don't really account for this. You can then perhaps imagine how likely it is is that a successful project in one hospital/location will then be replicated elsewhere because that will require people to share their knowledge, giving up time and money they're not afforded. So you have a culture whereby pilot projects are everywhere, but they never get delivered and never scale up because there is absolutely no slack built into the system.

Really good point this. "build more hospitals" and "more nurses" is always the pledge because "enable better discharge" and "reduce flow into the system" is not a particularly punchy message..

 

[Eggs]

I think that's for Category 2 calls, not necessarily heart attacks.

….you might be getting mixed up with target & reality;




12 years of a Conservative Government, I dare say they’ll blame the war in Ukraine.

 

[Blue 1]

No windfall tax is a huge mistake, would t surprised on a u turn

Mustn't bite the hand that feeds you.

 

[mahermi1]

I know, but I’ve been moaning about it for ages in the pub. Anyway, until the Return of The King, long live the Queen…

Listen here Pete they are only in your pub, so they don't have to use Electricity or Gas at home, so at least they stay warm and also they can't drive there due to drink an drive laws, so they save on petrol ! I'm sure they all love listening to your Tory sermons all night and days of yore the " King deposed by the new Queen" as such.

 

[Jebus_lives]

….you might be getting mixed up with target & reality;

View attachment 182773


12 years of a Conservative Government, I dare say they’ll blame the war in Ukraine.

You might be confusing a guardian headline for actual facts

 

[summerisle]

I see the usual suspects are still taking their orders from the CON Central Office.

 

[Rita_Poon]

I see the usual suspects are still taking their orders from the CON Central Office.

the 'bots' have spoken. there's lies to be spun. the exact same shysters that supported and looked the other way with johnson.

beats working for a living though...

 

[Blue 1]

I see the usual suspects are still taking their orders from the CON Central Office.

Shitty brown water between them, more like.

 

[tsubaki]

So only the rich in the country then? As the country poor will have limited supply to bring down costs. Or subsidise EV access for them.

It's tricky. I don't see anyone proposing to eradicate private transport any time soon. It would really require a serious improvement in public transport before it could even be mooted.

I know, thats what I was calling for.

 

[tsubaki]

I see the usual suspects are still taking their orders from the CON Central Office.

got to be good odds on at least 3 of those 4 going with something like "Liz steals Labour's thunder over £100 billion plan to help hardworking families" tomorrow, funded as it is by taxes

 

[peteblue]

Listen here Pete they are only in your pub, so they don't have to use Electricity or Gas at home, so at least they stay warm and also they can't drive there due to drink an drive laws, so they save on petrol ! I'm sure they all love listening to your Tory sermons all night and days of yore the " King deposed by the new Queen" as such.

Well we did enjoy ourselves tonight putting the world to rights, cracking a few jokes and non-woke comments. Oh and the beer was first class…..