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.