Since Britain’s current coalition government, of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, came to power, they have been implementing an austerity plan cutting into public spending at all levels. Now, we are about to witness a dangerous turn for the cuts that literally spell out death for thousands, if not millions, of people across the UK.
In “a move charities say could leave some without crucial treatments”, British healthcare officials have announced that “twenty-five different cancer treatments will no longer be funded by the NHS in England”.
Britain’s £280M ($421M) Cancer Drugs Fund was going to go £100M ($150M) over budget in 2014/15, so cuts are being made to the service. In consolation, “patients currently receiving the treatments will still be allowed to continue using them”, but what about people who are diagnosed tomorrow? The cuts will “affect a whole range of treatments”, meaning a whole range of diseases will now kill a lot more people. This is not the first case of cuts being made to the NHS, as babies have been sentenced to death simply to save money in Britain.
We are told that “NHS England said ‘difficult decisions’ needed to be made”, which now means that killing people to save money is actually considered a viable policy option in 2015 Britain. The Chief Executive of a British charity called Beating Bowel Cancer said that “65% of patients with advanced bowel cancer face the probability of an earlier death by being refused innovative treatments that were available before”.
How many people will be allowed to die before this barbarous policy is stopped?
If that was not bad enough, the UK is now also looking to cut back on how many ambulances are sent to potential emergency situations. 999 operators, Britain’s 911, “will be told they can keep patients on phone three times longer before they despatch an ambulance”. How many people will die as a result of this? Who are we going to hold accountable for each and every death that occurs?
“Ambulance staff said many more patients will die needlessly“, because calls “including those from patients suffering chest pains, which can indicate a heart attack“, will also now be delayed. One wonders what exactly would justify the immediate dispatch of an ambulance?
Professor Keith Willett, National Director for Acute Care, has truly mastered the act of doublespeak stating that “by acting with slightly less haste on the calls, we believe we can get to more patients with more speed”. How exactly do we achieve ‘more speed’ with ‘less haste’? Perhaps he exists in some sort of alternate dimension where the laws of physics do not apply. It truly boggles the mind as to how these people are ever able to reach positions of political power.
If you cannot supply the demand, increase the supply!
The most important thing to take into account here is that the UK is happy to provide bailouts to failing banks, as it cuts funding to treatments that will keep its citizens alive and refuses to invest in supporting a struggling ambulance service. Protests against cuts to health care have occurred, but to no avail.
Balancing a budget is not, under any circumstances, a reason to let people die. If you do not have a large enough supply of ambulances to meet the demand you do not ration the supply you have, you increase the supply to meet the demand.
This is literally a matter of life or death, and it is unconscionable to even imagine that these cuts are being allowed to happen. It is time to invest in life and for this embarrassment of a policy to end...
Cuts to cancer treatments announced
Twenty-five different cancer treatments will no longer be funded by the NHS in England, health chiefs have announced.
NHS England announced the step after it emerged the £280m Cancer Drugs Fund – for drugs not routinely available – was to go £100m over budget in 2014/15…
Continue reading the full story at BBC.co.uk
NHS to give ambulances longer to get to calls to try and hit targets
999 call handlers will be told they can keep patients on phone three times longer before they despatch an ambulance amid a spiralling NHS crisis.
New rules mean that those with symptoms which could be life-threatening – such as chest pains – could wait up to three minutes for crews to be dispatched…
Continue reading the full story at The Telegraph
READ MORE AUSTERITY NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Austerity Files
