»Derek’s NHS private hospital care: Kate Garraway vs. Emily Thornberry«
At a heated argument today about how her husband Derek Draper was treated in a private hospital during his tumultuous struggle with coronavirus, Kate Garraway and Labour frontbencher Emily Thornberry came to blows.
The host of Good Morning Britain pressed the Shadow Attorney General on Sir Keir Starmer’s novel idea to use private hospitals to relieve the massive backlog.
When asked whether the program amounted to privatization, Ms. Thornberry firmly asserted, “No, it doesn’t.”
We are stating that the NHS will pay for excess capacity in the private hospitals to reduce the waiting list if you are on the waiting list for a hip replacement for six months and there aren’t enough beds at a National Health Service hospital but there are some beds in a private hospital.
Politics is simply being fully realistic.
Ms. Garraway said, “I know from personal experience since there were no openings on any wards for him to attend for the therapy he required when Derek was initially ill and he had to be transported to hospital. Therefore, everything was essentially nationalized at that time.
However, after a period, the private hospitals claimed that they were unable to make ends meet and as a result, the program came to a stop and reverted back. That thus appeared to be the best course of action.
What is the defense against that, Ms. Garraway afterwards questioned? – to the Labour frontbencher’s blank stare, who then said, “I’d have argued the reason against it was those with private insurance wouldn’t be able to skip queues.”
“Why not do it for everyone if you’re going to pay for certain individuals to go to private hospitals?”
The National Health Service is my first concern, Ms. Thornberry said.
Ms. Garraway sobbed last month as she spoke about her husband Derek’s health struggles.
The Good Morning presenter acknowledged that her new way of life might be “exhausting” for those around her and that there “is no end point” to his care.
Derek, who was diagnosed with the virus in March 2020 and was taken to the hospital, is one of Covid’s longest-suffering patients in the UK. He wasn’t allowed to go home to his family’s London home until April 2021, where he continues to get round-the-clock care.
‘The trouble is, when it’s a lengthy struggle like with Derek, there’s no end point and it can be stressful for the people around me too,’ she said to presenter Lorraine Kelly.
I know that sometimes people remark, “Oh, she’s talking about that again,” but I’ve discovered that you can only really understand how it feels when you’re experiencing it.
And now I get emails from tens of thousands of individuals, which helps me feel less alone.
After being brought to the hospital with sepsis, she spoke about Derek’s present condition and remarked, “It’s a long assault.” I can see that he has both good and bad days. Thankfully, he is currently at home. Getting him back home has been a hard fight.
According to Sir Keir, the NHS is experiencing the “biggest crisis” in its history and is “not just on its knees, it’s on its face.”
According to data conducted by his party, over 230,000 people might be taken off waiting lists each year if private care was handled more wisely.
But when Sir Keir was presented with a pledge he made while running for the Labour leadership in 2020, he said he was “not talking about privatizing the NHS.”
The Labour leader pledged to “stop outsourcing in our NHS, local government, and judicial system” as one of his 10 campaign promises to unseat Jeremy Corbyn.
In recent months, Sir Keir has already enraged Labour’s Left-wing by abandoning his previous commitments about public ownership, freedom of movement, tuition rates, and backing for labor unions.
Rishi Sunak has refrained from calling the NHS in “crisis” despite numerous allegations of appalling wait times at A&E and for ambulances; the Prime Minister has recognized there is “enormous strain” on hospitals this winter.
As new negotiations to resolve NHS conflicts got underway, Health Secretary Steve Barclay was encouraged to “come to the table and speak about wages.”
The head of the organization that speaks for NHS Trusts pleaded with the government to take action. Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, said that the effects of the strike “divert attention away from the things the NHS is extremely anxious to concentrate on” like reducing wait times and restarting community services.
She told Times Radio, “We truly hope that (the unions and the government) can have a productive talk and prevent any industrial action.”
It would be wonderful if the Secretary of State would attend the meeting and discuss salary because, perhaps, it would establish the precedent for paramedics, ambulance personnel, and nurses.
Speaking with doctors, especially those affiliated with the British Medical Association (BMA), may not go well after Mr. Barclay called off a meeting on Wednesday in favor of giving interviews to the media.
On Thursday, the Health Secretary met with members of the British Medical Association, the British Dental Association, and the hospital physicians’ union HCSA. Ministers from the Cabinet Office will engage with civil service unions in the meantime.
It follows the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union’s announcement that about 100,000 government employees would strike on February 1 over salary. According to the PCS union, if ministers “placed some money on the table,” the conflict might be settled.
Jeremy Quin, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, and I are meeting, said Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union. There is a potential that this disagreement may be settled if he puts some money on the table. If he doesn’t, then on February 1st, he will see industrial action damage public services, from benefits to driving exams, from passports to driving licenses, from ports to airports.
In a new attempt to end the impasse, representatives of the Rail Delivery Group will also meet with representatives of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association.
As he stated that a “renewed offer” was on the table before to the negotiations, Transport Secretary Mark Harper increased expectations of a resolution within “days.”
Before the conflict can be resolved, the unions have made it plain that they want a fresh offer on salary, employment, and conditions.
The meetings follow the announcement by 14 health unions that they would not provide the NHS pay review board with any supporting documentation for the next salary cycle while the ongoing industrial conflicts continue.
The 14 unions, which together represent more than a million NHS employees in England, including physiotherapists, nurses, porters, and ambulance personnel, have requested direct wage negotiations with government.
Unions said that the protracted pay review body process has failed to provide a settlement for the ongoing wage and staffing conflict, which has resulted in a string of strikes.
‘For NHS leaders there is a genuine worry that the danger to patients will only increase with additional strikes, notably for nurses and physiotherapists scheduled in the coming weeks, and no sign of settlement on the horizon,’ said Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation.
“The Government must not turn a blind eye to the situation in what is by far the hardest winter for the NHS in a decade, and set against the perfect storm of growing proportions of winter diseases like Covid and flu and significant staff shortages.”
“It must quickly come to an arrangement with the unions.”
Other developments on strikes:
- Elizabeth Line employees in London were on strike, while Abellio bus employees in the city were also participating in industrial action;
- Staff members of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) continued to strike;
- The TUC’s “defend the right to strike” day, which was declared in response to the Government’s contentious legislation on minimum service levels during industrial action, will fall on the same day as the PCS strike;
- In England and Wales, members of the National Education Union (NEU), the teachers’ union NASUWT, and the school leaders’ union, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), are voting on whether or not to strike; results are expected next week.
- The planned nurse walkouts on January 18 and 19 and further ambulance service strikes on January 23 are being prepared for by NHS authorities;
- An estimated 45,000 British Medical Association members cast ballots on Monday about the possibility of a strike; the results are expected at the end of February. Junior doctor members of the HCSA are now participating in a strike ballot that expires on January 20, which might result in walkouts in February.
- The BMA has informed the Government that if a yes vote occurs, junior doctors would commence their action with a 72-hour “complete walkout” in March.
NHS officials are now evaluating the effects of the ambulance strikes that took place on Wednesday, during which up to 25,000 ambulance personnel from the GMB and Unison unions conducted walkouts.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s president, Dr. Adrian Boyle, has cautioned that strike action may result in “pent-up demand” in the days after walkouts.
»Derek’s NHS private hospital care: Kate Garraway vs. Emily Thornberry«