Crowdfunding now being used in UK to pay for medical treatment!

 Millions of people across the UK are currently on NHS waiting lists. In England, 5.6m are queuing for treatment. Data shared with BBC Panorama, shows that on average, waiting lists have grown by 50% in most of the deprived parts of England since the start of the pandemic, compared with nearly 35% in the most affluent areas. The research shows that people on waiting lists are nearly twice as likely as those in wealthier areas to wait more than a year for treatment. As it becomes more difficult to see a GP or to receive hospital treatment as an NHS patient, many people are now turning in desperation, to private medical treatment. 

The Kildea family from Strabane, Northern Ireland, had to raise £50,000 by crowdfunding to get treatment in Turkey for a 12-year-old son, with a dangerous and life-limiting spinal condition because he would have to wait two-years for an operation in the UK. This is not an isolated case. 

It is extremely worrying that the Covid-19 pandemic might be used as an excuse to introduce an American style health system into the UK by the backdoor and by stealth. I am a supporter of the NHS but the Tory Government would certainly like to see the NHS totally privatized and the actions of some so-called health care professionals are leading us down that path. Just ask yourself why it is that so many of us have difficulty at the moment getting to see a GP but we can circumvent the problem of access by going private as many people are doing. Profits in private health are soaring. How many people are dying because of delays in getting treatment or even a diagnosis? Think of Sarah Harding of the female pop group, Girls Allowed, who died of breast cancer aged 40. It was reported in the press that one woman had paid £95 for a private appointment because her son couldn't get to see his own GP because of some excuse about Covid-19. But when he turned up for his private consultation, it was his own GP that he saw. Apparently the venal wretch refunded him the £95. 

Automation is now giving us useless remote and virtual GP appointments - telephone, video, and Skype consultations, which the senior Coroner for Greater Manchester has said is leading to unnecessary deaths in some people as symptoms go undiagnosed. There have been instances of GP's asking patients to cough into the telephone. Don't believe that this is temporary or that the Covid-19 epidemic is the sole purpose for this. The doctors have been after this for years. NHS contracts with GP's do not compel them to do face-to-face patient interviews unless this clinically necessary. 

I was told about Skype consultations at a meeting of the Tameside Hospital AGM, years ago. I thought the idea ludicrous at the time and challenged it at the meeting. A GP at the meeting asked the hospital top brass how they would do a chest examination of a person in a care home by Skype. Their answer was that they would train somebody in the home to do it. Sheer lunacy! If you can't get to see a GP in person, then why have them?

Naomi Klein, the Canadian author, has written a book entitled 'The Shock Doctrine: The rise of Disaster Capitalism.' She argues that national crises (disasters and upheavals) are used to establish controversial and questionable policies while citizens are too distracted to engage and develop adequate responses and resist effectively. The Covid-19 might be just such an opportunity.

The Professor Who Refused To Be De-colonized

 

Professor Paul Harper-Scott

A professor of musical history and theory at the Royal Holloway, University of London, has resigned in protest against plans to de-colonize curriculums and the 'no platforming' of academics. Paul Harper-Scott, 43, had worked in the Music Department of Royal Holloway for sixteen years when he decided to leave in the summer of 2021 because he'd become 'profoundly disillusioned' at how increasingly dogmatic universities were becoming with 'cancel culture', seemingly endemic.

The first member of his family to go to university, and from a mining community, Harper-Scott says on his blog, "Why I Left Academia', that he'd entered the profession as an outsider naively believing that academics were committed to the pursuit of truth, "This did not turn out to be true...I wrongly supposed the universities would be critical places, but they're becoming increasingly dogmatic." The professor of musical history, believes that music departments could cease teaching the works of Wagner and Beethoven because their compositions were produced during a time of empire and "in the frankly insane belief that in doing so, will somehow materially improve current living conditions for the economically, socially, sexually, religiously, or racially underprivileged." 

Harper-Scott wrote on his blog that, "too many humanities scholars move in lock step with the general ideology of our time, dogmatically echoing the opinions of politicians, the media and business." He warns that if universities abandon a basic commitment to scepticism and a critical mode of thinking, then they will have ceased to serve a useful function.

Earlier this year, the Royal Holloway, announced that in an effort to combat 'structural racism' and to support the BME community (whatever that is), they would be removing certain book titles from their collection and 'de-colonizing' and 'diversifying' their collections to make their service more inclusive and to tackle racism. 

While the Royal Holloway hastily compile a woke index of forbidden books, so that some people may never have to confront an unpleasant thought or view, there is nothing new in libraries eliminating books and literature deemed inappropriate for political purposes. During the 1960s and 1970s, many so-called 'looney-left' London councils discretely destroyed thousand of books that were considered sexist, imperialist, colonialist, homophobic and racist. While book burning was a craze in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and led by student activists, the actions of the Royal Holloway, are more akin to book binning. 

Just what 'de-colonizing' and 'diversifying' literature actually means and who will be tasked with doing it, is an issue open to argument and debate. We should bear in mind that history is inevitably contaminated by views peculiar to the times and the personal biases of historians. 

While recent attention has focused on the nefarious activities of 17th century slavers like Edward Colston, and the Atlantic slave trade, many are less happy to talk about the estimated "20 million black slaves" who were exported to the Ottoman and Turkish Empire - the Islamic world - over a period of 500 years or the abduction in 1631, of 107 people from the little village of Baltimore, West Cork, Ireland, by Barbary pirates to be sold in the slave markets of Algiers. White people were still being bought and sold as slaves in the Ottoman Empire, decades after American blacks were freed.

Chubby Brown banned from performing in Sheffield.

 

Roy 'Chubby' Brown

Over the years, many British comedians have fallen foul to censorship of one sort or another. But rarely was it due to the kind of heresy hunting that we see all too frequently today, which has been dubbed the 'cancel culture'.

Max Miller, who was known as 'The Cheeky Chappie', and regarded as the greatest stand-up comic of his day, frequently got into trouble with the censors for his double entendre and risque jokes. Miller was banned by the BBC in the 1930s and 1950s, which only boosted his popularity and takings at the box office. The English northern comedian, Frank Randle, who also worked the music halls, was frequently banned by the police from performing at venues in Blackpool. In 1952, he was prosecuted on four charges of obscenity and fined £10 on each account. For over twenty years (1969-1989), the comedian Benny Hill, was hugely popular with his 'The Benny Hill Show'. But in 1989, his show was suddenly axed on the grounds that it "was passed its sell-by date.' Yet his shows have been sold to 140 countries and still attract audiences in the billions. Many of us know that show was really cancelled because Hill in the 1980s came under a concerted attack from feminist critics who denounced his comedy as sexist rubbish.

In 2007, the stand-up comedian Bernard Manning, told the Daily Mail that campaigning had had kept him off television for years. He added: "I don't think the Commission for Racial Equality will be holding a wake for me, nor will the Lesbian and Gay Rights lot or the feminists. They will always be banging on about how I was sexist or anti-gay..." Manning thought that the new breed of British comics were as funny as a dose of bird flue and their humour, equivalent to that of a funeral parlour.

One of the latest victims to fall foul of the politically correct brigade, is the 'fat bastard' himself, Roy Chubby Brown. 'Chubby' or Royston Vasey, has been banned from performing his live show at the Sheffield City Hall, on the grounds that his comedy does not reflect Sheffield's inclusive values. Just why it requires a ban, is intriguing because if you don't like his comedy or think it beyond the pale, then you don't have to pay to see him. It is as simple as that! One suspects that 'Chubby' has been banned because he's hugely popular and considered a funny man, in spite of his disgusting and vulgar humour, that panders to base instincts. 

The new culture secretary, best-selling author, Nadine Dorries, believes that comedy is being killed off by 'leftwing snowflakes'. Whether she intends to wage a war on 'woke', remains to be seen. But already she's become the object of ridicule and vitriol. Matthew Anderson, the European culture editor for the New York Times, wrote: "Germany's culture minister is a trained art historian; France's wrote a book on Verdi. The new UK culture secretary...ate ostrich anus on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.'

Although comedians may have always been subject to some sort of sanction, it was mainly done by the authorities and not by some self-righteous, self-appointed, cancel culture brigade that we see today. It's said that the Puritans  were the school-masters of the English middle-class, and the English left, is predominantly middle-class. Despite their socialist pretensions, they despise the kind of coarse working-class humour that comedians like Hill, Manning, and Roy Chubby Brown, epitomize. Whether you like Chubby Brown or loathe him, I tend to agree with one critic who said: "Fat bastards like Chubby need us to raise our standard" so as to "defend his audiences right to lower theirs."

At the time of writing, over 38,000 people have signed a petition calling for Chubby to be allowed to perform at the City Hall in Sheffield.

Doctor says criticism of 'virtual' appointments is "politically motivated garbage."

 A letter which was circulated by NHS England calling on all GP practices to ensure they are offering face-to-face appointments, has been strongly condemned by GP leaders. They have warned that GP practices are not contractually required to offer face-t0-face appointments to patients unless there is a clinical need. The GP's say that the NHS letter risks fueling negative  media coverage of access to general practice. The NHS letter also says that practice receptions should be open to patients to ensure that patients who do not have easy access to phones or other smart devices are not disadvantaged in their ability to access care.

While some NHS patients are struggling to get face-to-face appointments with their GP's, it seems it might be less difficult if you're prepared to pay and go private. On newspaper reported that a mother from Suffolk had paid £95 for her son to see a doctor because he'd been unable to get a face-to-face appointment with his own GP. However, when he arrived for the consultation, he discovered much to his surprise, that the private consultation was with his own GP. Much embarrassed, the GP referred him to hospital and refunded the £95.

As we recently reported, Alison Mutch, the Senior Coroner for Greater Manchester, has warned that the inability of some patients to see a GP, was contributing to unnecessary deaths. Yet, Nick Grundy, a doctor from Middlesex, recently told 'GP Online that demands for face-to-face appointments were "politically motivated garbage."

Coroner warns GP 'virtual' appointments will increase unnecessary deaths.

 In March 2020, NHS England instructed family doctors to adopt a "total triage" approach and to see patients in person, only after a video consultation, to reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus. This May, NHS England wrote to GP's telling them to "ensure they are offering face-to-face appointments" adding that remote appointments "should be done alongside a clear offer of appointments in person." But despite lockdown restrictions having been lifted, many people are still struggling to see their GP in person. In July, in-person appointments made up up 57% of total appointments, compared with 80% in the same month in 2019.

Alison Mutch, the Senior Coroner for Greater Manchester, has warned that the inability of some patients to see GP's in person, was contributing to deaths. The Health Service Journal reported that the Coroner had preside over five inquests during the Covid epidemic and had said that patients should have better care, as some could have been referred more quickly for vital treatment had they been seen face-to-face. 

Once case that Alison Mutch investigated was that of retired welder, Brian Mottram (79), who died after collapsing at home in Hyde, Greater Manchester, just two days after his GP failed to spot he had symptoms of Coronavirus during a telephone appointment. A lung cancer survivor, who also suffered from diabetes, he complained of shortness of breath and a tight chest. According to the Coroner's report, he was prescribed antibiotics. His 76-year-old widow Jean, said: "It's time for doctors to get on and do what they're paid for and see patients properly, which means face-to-face. What's the use of them otherwise?"

Despite tragedies of this kind, a survey of family doctors - who earn an average £100,000 per annum - by Pulse magazine, found 79% of GP's saying that a return to pre-pandemic levels of in-person consultations was unnecessary. Some 61% of GP's also said that they feared they may be putting their own health at risk if they offer more face-to-face appointments. 

It may seem bizarre to many people, but NHS contracts do not require GP's to do face-to-face interviews with their patients. There have been reports of GP's asking patients to cough into the phone. Similarly, how do you examine a person's chest over the phone or check their blood pressure? If you do a Skype consultation, do you check to see if a patients' tongue is heavily pixelated?

Despite being strapped for cash and there being a shortage of doctors and nurses, the NHS are currently recruiting 42 "monstrously overpaid bureaucrats", Chief Executive Officers, on salaries averaging £223,000 per annum. While many GP's seek to avoid contact with their patients, those courageous doctors and nurses who work in our NHS hospitals, have little choice in the matter. I take my hat off to them.