5 ms·

It's been a terrible season for respiratory infections (RSV, Covid, Flu) and gastro bugs, the most vulnerable can't afford to eat, let alone turn on the heating

It's been a terrible season for respiratory infections (RSV, Covid, Flu) and gastro bugs, the most vulnerable can't afford to eat, let alone turn on the heating, and social care availability has been in decline for a decade, worsening significantly in the past year, nuking front-door availability at hospitals, doctors and the transport they rely on. All of which I mean to say: No. Shit. Sherlock. It's all so painfully obvious to anyone paying attention. The doctors and nurses and care homes and mental health workers have all been screaming about this for a decade. Cuts upon cuts upon redirected funding upon private providers upon universal credit cutting benefits upon cuts and failures and all that before covid, all before inflation lowering everyone's incomes. We need to hire. We need to train. We need to retain. We need to build. We need to instill the fact that care home workers, pastoral carers for our elderly are such bloody important roles because without them helping people live outside hospital, nobody else gets seen. We need to pay them, we need to pay them to pick up shit and talked to dementia sufferers more than Jeff Bezos can pay them to pack boxes. If we can't do that… It's over. But we need to have a serious conversation about what we actually want to do with the infirm in this country. Letting them freeze to death in their own homes feels like state-mandated euthanasia without the "eu". Huh, a wild Brexit joke appeared. We need a General Election.

vithlani 4y ago
[dead]
nivenkos 4y ago
[flagged]
- zimpenfish 4y ago
  That might be true if this wasn't a long-term issue going back at least a decade, if not two.
- uxcolumbo 4y ago
  It’s not an either or. We can have both. Pay nurses more and help to fight back oppressors. Helping Ukraine is not charity, it’s ensuring Europe’s security and safety. But you are right, this government has shown how they value key workers.
- oliwarner 4y ago
  That reads like you resent Ukrainians for getting support. I'll charitably read it as "they only care about the optics" because these governments didn't need a war on their doorstep to cut funding to councils for social care, let public pay rot under inflation, pay their mates through preferred tender, repeatedly push front line workers to the brink, cut the nursing bursary, push out senior doctors by ubertaxing their pension contributions, kick medical infrastructure projects down the road again and again and again. Remember Boris built 40 hospitals with his bare hands. It's great if we've been able to help Ukraine. But it's immaterial to health and social care in this country.
- Sakos 4y ago
  This is such an unhelpful take. The UK government did Brexit while, for example, promising to redirect all the funding that went to the EU towards health care. Did it go to health care? No. Did the money go to Ukrainians? No. The government simply doesn't care about its populace, regardless of what's happening in Ukraine.
  - blibble 4y ago
    > The UK government did Brexit while, for example, promising to redirect all the funding that went to the EU towards health care. Did it go to health care? No. it did, see the NHS Funding Act 2020: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/5/pdfs/ukpga_20200005_en.pdf https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/5/pdfs/ukpga_20200... the increase (£412MM/week) is more than the famous bus number (£350MM/week)
- gggggg5 4y ago
  How is that? How do you suppose the British government could have avoided this? You speak of Ukrainian lives, so presumably you are referring to foreign policy and not domestic policy. Through which foreign policy decisions has the British government caused this? It's not like Britain could have kept energy prices down by not aiding Ukraine. It's also hardly realistic to suggest that British aid to Ukraine has come at a significant expense to the taxpayer, given the baseline defence spending by Britain to counter Russia.
Tanjreeve 4y ago
The usual response is one or both of 1. Find some convoluted way that it's actually the fault of people who need treatment or front line staff and hammer that in compliant media and have it regurgitated by the BBC and pundits till it becomes received wisdom 2. Some sort of window dressing policy/mandated clapping and declare mission success. Anyone who continues to criticise about the fundamental problems is shouted down as just being anti-tory/political activist. E.g the other days wheeze where we banned plastic cutlery therefore releasing tons of human waste into rivers on the regular doesn't matter anymore. The bit I'm curious about is if that is done deliberately or if British people are just culturally favourable to flagrant gaslighting.
- oliwarner 4y ago
  No disagreements on your points. But I think we're a small country with a few very pervasive news outlets —mostly controlled by right-leaning billionaires— and a few far-right commentators who get disproportionate focus through outrage. I don't think we're special. It's the same trap that a lot of countries fall into.
moving_sofa 4y ago
The NHS has also been deliberately weakened by the Tory (and Labour) to justify its privatization. That is the crucial point. The unusual seasons would just be a small extra burden if they had not weakened it.

vithlani 4y ago

[dead]

nivenkos 4y ago

[flagged]

zimpenfish 4y ago
That might be true if this wasn't a long-term issue going back at least a decade, if not two.
uxcolumbo 4y ago
It’s not an either or. We can have both. Pay nurses more and help to fight back oppressors. Helping Ukraine is not charity, it’s ensuring Europe’s security and safety. But you are right, this government has shown how they value key workers.
oliwarner 4y ago
That reads like you resent Ukrainians for getting support. I'll charitably read it as "they only care about the optics" because these governments didn't need a war on their doorstep to cut funding to councils for social care, let public pay rot under inflation, pay their mates through preferred tender, repeatedly push front line workers to the brink, cut the nursing bursary, push out senior doctors by ubertaxing their pension contributions, kick medical infrastructure projects down the road again and again and again. Remember Boris built 40 hospitals with his bare hands. It's great if we've been able to help Ukraine. But it's immaterial to health and social care in this country.
Sakos 4y ago
This is such an unhelpful take. The UK government did Brexit while, for example, promising to redirect all the funding that went to the EU towards health care. Did it go to health care? No. Did the money go to Ukrainians? No. The government simply doesn't care about its populace, regardless of what's happening in Ukraine.
- blibble 4y ago
  > The UK government did Brexit while, for example, promising to redirect all the funding that went to the EU towards health care. Did it go to health care? No. it did, see the NHS Funding Act 2020: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/5/pdfs/ukpga_20200005_en.pdf https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/5/pdfs/ukpga_20200... the increase (£412MM/week) is more than the famous bus number (£350MM/week)
gggggg5 4y ago
How is that? How do you suppose the British government could have avoided this? You speak of Ukrainian lives, so presumably you are referring to foreign policy and not domestic policy. Through which foreign policy decisions has the British government caused this? It's not like Britain could have kept energy prices down by not aiding Ukraine. It's also hardly realistic to suggest that British aid to Ukraine has come at a significant expense to the taxpayer, given the baseline defence spending by Britain to counter Russia.

Tanjreeve 4y ago

The usual response is one or both of 1. Find some convoluted way that it's actually the fault of people who need treatment or front line staff and hammer that in compliant media and have it regurgitated by the BBC and pundits till it becomes received wisdom 2. Some sort of window dressing policy/mandated clapping and declare mission success. Anyone who continues to criticise about the fundamental problems is shouted down as just being anti-tory/political activist. E.g the other days wheeze where we banned plastic cutlery therefore releasing tons of human waste into rivers on the regular doesn't matter anymore. The bit I'm curious about is if that is done deliberately or if British people are just culturally favourable to flagrant gaslighting.

oliwarner 4y ago
No disagreements on your points. But I think we're a small country with a few very pervasive news outlets —mostly controlled by right-leaning billionaires— and a few far-right commentators who get disproportionate focus through outrage. I don't think we're special. It's the same trap that a lot of countries fall into.

moving_sofa 4y ago

The NHS has also been deliberately weakened by the Tory (and Labour) to justify its privatization. That is the crucial point. The unusual seasons would just be a small extra burden if they had not weakened it.