On the crisis in A&E: ’neither the Department of Health and Social Care, nor NHS England, seem prepared to deliver the leadership required with the urgency required’ (House of Lords report, 19 January 2023)
By stewartb
The latest assessment of the state of emergency healthcare in the NHS comes from a new report by a House of Lords (HoL) committee. The Public Services Committee has a Labour peer as Chair, three other Labour members, three Tory members, two Lib Dems and two cross-benchers. The focus of the committee’s report is NHS England and some of its findings are quite remarkable! I strongly suspect they will never be quoted in the corporate media or the BBC. (You’ll note I did explain they are about NHS England and not Scotland!)
Source: Public Services Committee, House of Lords (19 January, 2023) Emergency healthcare: a national emergency (https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5803/ldselect/pubserv/130/130.pdf )
Firstly, I wonder if the Tories in Holyrood will notice that a committee of peers has labelled the current state of emergency care in England a ‘national emergency’?
And it gets worse! In Para 49 of the same report: ‘We are concerned that neither the Department of Health and Social Care, nor NHS England, seem prepared to deliver the leadership required with the urgency required. We therefore considered how to ensure that the situation would be addressed at the highest levels of policy making. We are attracted to the idea of referring this issue to COBR, the civil contingencies committee which deals with matters of national emergencies or major disruption. This would have the benefit of securing cross-government attention, including that of the Treasury and the Prime Minister. We have set out in chapter 2 the extent to which the situation of emergency healthcare fits the criterion of “national emergency”, and we lack any confidence in the existing structures to ensure the leadership this issue needs. Referring the matter to a COBR Committee would enhance accountability and bring public attention to the severe state of affairs.’ (with my emphasis)
The Lords committee concludes: ‘Emergency healthcare, a key component in the national health service, has been allowed to degenerate, and it is likely to get worse. We see no sign that there is an adequate plan or the necessary leadership to address this.’
Which party of government has been responsible for NHS England for well over a decade? It’s the same party with successive terms in government; it is the ONLY government in this ‘precious Union’ in possession of ALL the fiscal, monetary, labour market and immigration policy levers that should have guaranteed the NHS never reached this state. It is the only one with access to the resources now to start to fix the mess!
This is Tory failure writ large – unless of course the Tories have another political agenda in play!
Is there any prospect of the Tory health spokesperson in Holyrood reading and reflecting on this HoL report before making his next contributions to the media and to our Parliament? Who should be resigning Dr Gulhane?
Talking-up Scotland / Scottish media fact checking is like shooting fish in a barrel 
You can bet your bottom dollar that the words ‘ national emergency’ will be used to reference SNHS in future attacks on the SG, that’s if they haven’t already done so.
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And, this morning we read that the Chair of the BBC helped arrange a loan of £800 000 for Mr Boris Johnson. The fact that the BBC goes light on any criticism of the Tories and, indeed, reads out the ‘news’ scripts from Conservative sources has no connection with this.
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Later today I will email all unionist MSP’s with the link to this article
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The Tories cut the funding 2015 to 2020. Instead of increasing it.
Covid fubding £270Billion. £370 over a lifetime. UK Gov Accounts 2019/20. Published June 2022, The Tories spent £918Billion. 2019/20. Revenues raised £815Billion+. Yet claim there is no monies to fund NHS and pay essential workers.
£42Billion lost a year in tax evasion. £13Billion a year over ten years nuclear decommisding. They plan to build more. Flying waste around the world. £Billions wasted on HS2 and Hinkley Point etc. Essential services are neglected. £Billions lost on Brexit. Levelling up is actually levelling down.
The Tories cut £6Billion a year from education from 2015 to 2020. Betraying the students. Raising loans to £9000 and increasing fees in the rest of the UK. The Scottish Gov has to mitigate the cuts. Getting less and Jess from the Block Grant. Paying for Westminster poor decisions and bad policies. Not voted for in Scotland.
£240Billion on UK pensions and benefits. Increasing pensions would cut administration costs nearly as much as the pay out.
Scotland in surplus in fuel and nearer the source pays more.
The Scottish Gov has increased funding to unblock beds. Only urgent operations for Feb to free up beds. To save lives Jan and Feb have the highest rate for illness and death.on average,
UK NHS funding £159Billion a year. The highest spend of Gov
Scotland funds SNHS £150Billion+ and social care. Scotland did not get £27Billion Covid funding pro rata. Or enough for essential services. Westminster cover up. Scottish revenues and resources paying for Westminster poor, bad decisions. Killing people. Now causing and funding war in Europe.
The bribery and corruption of Westminster plain to see. The Tories will b3 voted out. Complete mismanagement. The rest just as bad.
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Even as we read this report Sandy ‘Brylcreem’ Gulhane is preening himself in front of the mirror as he prepares for his latest TV appearance where he will castigate the ‘failing’ Scottish Health Minister .
Ask him for HIS solution to the Health Crisis and he will parrot Jackie Baillie – ”Sack Humza Yousaf ! ”
When asked for a solution to the lack of principles in Holyrood Opposition Health Spokespersons he will think for a moment then reply – ”Sack Humza Yousaf !”
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Gulhane really should be reported to the BMA by the Health Board, his behaviour, considering his oath, is wholly unacceptable from a doctor.
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An excellent article –
On the subject of Gulhane, I posted this earlier –
“OT John, was highly amused to see this appear in the National this morning https://archive.ph/Cudeo and not in the slightest surprised the Scottish Tories doubled down on the lie by claiming they had ‘ they “faithfully reported” the figures supplied by the health board ‘.
🤣”
He should be apologising in Holyrood, not adding more hair-gel.
The Lords committee report was doubtless understating it’s conclusion with ‘Emergency healthcare, a key component in the national health service’ HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO DEGENERATE, it would have been impossible to get the Tory contingent to sign up to DELIBERATELY FORCED TO DEGENERATE BY GOVERNMENT.
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Did the Tory UKGov not close down a lot of A&E departments in NHS England?
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Ah, but surely you mean “decisions by Trust managements” ?
Their strategy of creating intermediaries to give the illusion of independence and efficiency has been relatively successful thus far in hiding HMG’s manipulation, but the mirage is fading fast as their scheming has begun to unravel in on occasion quite spectacular fashion…
The RMT’s Mick Lynch’s straight talking of late has been revealing of the sheer duplicity of the Tories, but there are others such as the Nurses, Doctors, etc. where MSM are what may be best described “reluctant” to expose the mirage of “hands off” government – Ofgem, Independent Pay Review Bodies, the Rail Delivery Group, etc., etc.. – There are layers of duplicity running up to three layers deep on energy for instance, all of them ultimately controlled by HMG.
So YES, the “Tory UKGov” did, but the in the media it was another big boy who did it and ran away…
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I’m not holding my breath for liar Gulhane to say or do anything positive. I just expect him to trot out more sh1te about the Scottish NHS.
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