Sir Michael Palin is absolutely right, it is frankly shocking that hospices rely so heavily on charitable donations, it is this sector that needs funding and support, rather than ushering in a private market in assisted suicide.
There were some brilliant fancy dress outfits as charity fundraisers from businesses, family teams and scouts raised thousands of pounds for Huddersfield-based Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice in the charity’s annual Dragon Boat Race @forgetmnotchild
https://t.co/ACbhUlsttx
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Today, MPs will vote on cutting £3,000 a year from 750,000 low-income sick and disabled people deemed too ill to work.
That’s a £2 BILLION cut.
This has had hardly any media coverage.
And the Government snuck out the Impact Assessment only last night.
For a Govt bill, an impact assessment would be produced when the proposal is first introduced, before bill itself, and then updated at later stages. I spent a lot of time when working in Whitehall updating impact assessments! PMB inadequate for such serious proposals.
This shocking report must be a wake up call for @UKLabour.
14 years of Conservative cuts & underfunding won't be fixed overnight.
But Labour's pursuit of further privatisation & refusal to give the NHS the investment it needs will only make things worse.
https://t.co/Thc72khnqL
The government’s decision to have a recruitment freeze for cancer and diagnostic departments is an extraordinarily shortsighted move.
Cancer waits are rising in the UK, with patients suffering needless delays to their NHS care. This is due to a lack of staff and resources.
This freeze on recruitment is widespread. We have 11,757 doctors who are unable to specialise to become cancer specialists, surgeons, psychiatrists, anaesthetists, or GPs because the government has put a mindless restriction on training numbers.
We have 1000s of GPs out of work, because the government refuses to provide adequate funding for general practice.
If we don’t have a well staffed NHS, the current situation will only get worse. When will the government act?
Yep. This is a product of decades of idiotic New Public Management of the NHS thinking that continuously “running it hot” on 95% bed occupancy and having winter crises every year is somehow “efficient”.
It’s just a recipe for cumulating chaos that has now arrived at meltdown.
Labour & the #NHS: new year, same dangerous mistakes...
The @UKLabour government's new health policy announcements look set to further entrench privatisation whilst failing to address the real challenges facing our public health service.
Here's what you need to know 🧵⬇️
Leasehold reform in🏴🏴is not happening fast enough. Law Commission leasehold reforms have been available since 2020. There’ve been many reviews and consultations prior to this. @UKLabour said in Apr 2024 they’d ‘abolish leasehold in their first 100 days’ yet have not done so
8 major hospitals have declared critical incidents in the last 24hrs alone.
Some of the 100s patients are stranded on trolleys, in corridors & in the back of ambulances will likely die there.
This isn’t normal, inevitable or attributable to viruses alone. It’s a catastrophe.
A *report* on social care reform by 2028.
Meanwhile assisted dying / assisted suicide could - in fact is likely to - be legalised and implemented by 2027.
How do we ensure people don’t ‘choose’ an assisted death because they can’t get the care they need?
I will write more fully on this shortly - but this is a breathtaking abdication of responsibility by the UK’s medical regulator.
This is mass medical deregulation - the @gmcuk literally saying PAs can do whatever they want if their local employer says they can. An NHS scandal.
Where you are born should not affect your life chances, but new @ONS data shows the lowest life expectancy among those in some of the most deprived areas.
Being born into poverty literally takes years off your life.
This has to change.
#PovertyIsAPoliticalChoice
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to relaunch his premiership.
Will he:
End the two-child benefit cap
End winter fuel payment cut
Bring water into public ownership
End social care scam
Curb corporate profiteering
Redistribute income/wealth
Guess what?
https://t.co/YINTt3jaTJ
300 hospice beds in England are closed due to critical funding and staffing pressures - 14% of total capacity.
That’s 110,000 days and nights of care lost for those who need it.
We’re calling on the government to act now.
https://t.co/I1o6PWE1Dj