Going,going...

 

Going

Going

Gone…..

So much for the world famous hospitals, what about the boring local ones, those are the ones we really care about because they are the ones we need?

Ealing Hospital in West London is under real threat – it faces losing its Accident and Emergency and Maternity. Things flow from that – if maternity goes what future does Gynaecology have? The Stroke unit has closed. If A and E goes, what about cardiac?

Well, they have plans of their own – plans to increase Private Patient income in 2013 by + 231% compared to 2010.

 

Surrey and Sussex plans an increase of +186% and that includes 11 new private rooms.

Their spokesman summed it up;

“As with other trusts, many of our consultants run private practises outside of their NHS work. Many of these consultants prefer to operate in NHS Hospitals where there is 24/7 backup of intensive care facilities, etc, so that they can operate on high-risk patients. These operations are carried out outside NHS sessions, at weekends or out of hours.”

No one voted for any of this, although we will be paying for it. In return we get a first and second class service, which divides us up between those who can pay and those who have to wait.

Tomorrow, I’ll have a look at how insidious it all really is.

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

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