NHS Crisis (Autumn 2024). Another Installment?

I have written a series of blogs on "the NHS Crisis", the first one in May 2011, some 13 years ago, and here is yet another update. However, this time it has been written for me - courtesy of an official Government Report, "Independent Investigation of the NHS in England, which does not write off the problem as a little local difficulty that will be solved by pouring more money into a failed institution!

The report was published after a 9-week review of the NHS by Lord Darzi, an independent peer, and former cancer surgeon, initiated by the election of a new Labour government in July 2024. It has been widely reported in the mainstream media, and paints a stark picture, far beyond the usual problems with long and growing waiting lists and delays in response, diagnosis and treatment throughout the entire NHS organisation. The report states that:

• Accident and Emergency services are in "an awful state":, with long waits estimated to be causing an additional 14,000 extra deaths (annually).
•  The health of the nation has deteriorated, and has brought in "a surge in long-term mental health conditions".
• Rising levels of illness risk economic prosperity, with 2.8 million people now unable to work because of poor health.
• Britain has higher cancer mortality rates than other countries.
• Although hospital staff have increased since the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of appointments and procedures have not risen because "patients no longer flow through hospitals as the should".
• The NHS has been starved of capital investment, leading to "crumbling buildings", mental health patients in "Victoria-era cells infested with vermin" and "parts of the NHS operating in decrepit portacabins".
  

My series of blogs (use this link to see my last one, in March 2024, which gives links to all of them) have charted the rise and rise of the NHS Crisis as it has developed through the last 13 years, highlighting (i) the nature of the crisis at the time of writing, (ii) predicting that the crisis would get progressively worse, and would NOT be resolved by pouring more money into it, and (iii) that no-one has yet had the wit to work out the underlying reason for this ongoing NHS Crisis! 

Does the Darzi report, and the new government's initial response, address the issues I have raised? That's look at each one.

(i) Hitherto, the serious nature of the NHS Crisis has always been heavily discounted. It could be resolved by another management re-organisation, or (more usually) by putting in additional resources, by bringing in private investment: the problem was primarily one of under-investment. Now, we are told, the crisis will take 10 years to resolve, and no further money will be spent "without reform".

(ii) So the Darzi report has (at last) overturned the idea that the interminable saga of NHS Crises can be resolved by pouring more money into it. And for the first time in the 76 year history of the NHS, a British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and Secretary of State for Health, Wes Streeting, have openly admitted this. So my prediction has come true.

• Keir Starmer has said that although the NHS is in a critical condition, there will be no additional money "without reform". It must, he says, "reform or die". But what reform? Another structural management reform? There have been plenty of these, and none of them have prevented the NHS crisis spiralling, year by year.
  
• Wes Streeting has spoken about the three 'big shifts' that were needed. (a) a move from hospital to community care. (b) a move from analogue to digital technology "to empower patients and give them control over their healthcare". (c) moving from a treatment model to a preventative model. These are 'shifts' that have little or nothing to do with what I argue, that it is the treatment that the NHS offers its patients that is at the root of the problem.
  

 (iii) So the fundamental reason for the ongoing NHS Crisis has still not been identified! Why, for instance, are "patients no longer flowing through hospitals as the should"? Is the medical treatment they receive not working? The question is not even asked. And why is there "a surge in long-term mental health conditions". What is causing this surge? Again, the question is not asked, leave alone given a response. So how will these proposals get 2.8 million patients back to work - if there is to be no change to the medical treatment they receive? The misguided and thoughtless assumption that pharmaceutical medicine is treating illness and disease successfully remains firmly in place!

So what, indeed, is causing the unprecedented/epidemic levels of chronic diseases, like ADHD, Allergy, Arthritis, Autism, Dementia, Diabetes, Epilepsy, Heart/Lung/Kidney/Liver disease, Mental Health, and so many more? It has little to do with hospital care or community care, with digital technology, and moving to a 'preventative' model. In pharmaceutical medicine, prevention seems to mean giving drugs like Statins, and vaccines, earlier - whilst people are still well!

If the NHS continues to provide patients with a diet o pharmaceutical drugs, which have limited and marginal effectiveness as treatment, there is little hope that it will ever be able to reduce the number of sick patients, and the amount of sickness they present.

If the NHS continues to provide patients with pharmaceutical drugs which cause serious adverse reactions, and disease in patients, there is every possibility that the number of sick people, and the seriousness of their health deficits, will continue to increase - as they have done for the last 76 years.

So the Darzi report, and the government response to it, is positive in the limited sense that the seriousness of the problem has at last been recognised, and the futility of throwing more money in the bottomless pit of the NHS acknowledged. 

But without identifying the fundamental problem, the control that the NHS has gratuitously given to pharmaceutical medicine, and its almost total reliance on pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, the solution has again been missed again.

When the NHS was established it was based on two important principles. First, that treatment should be free at the point of use. And second, that the best medical treatment should be offered to patients. I agree with both these principles, but the second has been badly neglected. 

What was not envisaged in 1948 was that the pharmaceutical industry would achieve a virtual monopoly in the treatment options offered to patients by the NHS. The only change that has taken place regarding patient treatment has been the removal of Natural Medical Therapies, including homeopathy.

Pharmaceutical drugs are not making us better. Indeed they are making us sicker. But they now have a monopoly within the NHS. Visit a doctor, go to a hospital, and you will almost inevitably receive pharmaceutical medicine. 

That is the fundamental basis of the NHS crisis.

Tess, Homeopathy, and Back Leg Weakness

Tess is my Labrador. She is 15 years old, a good age; and until recently she has been fit and well. She has never see a vet. She was treated homeopathically for all the canine ailments and did not have any vaccinations. She has been well exercised, well fed, and has become a much loved and treasured family pet.

Suddenly, a few of months ago, she lost control of her rear legs. She would collapse, and have difficult standing again. When she did walk she was limping, appeared lame, and had a slow, unstable gait.

I tried her with several homeopathic remedies, but she quickly got worse. She became lethargic, sleeping most of the time, and not engaging with anyone. She was eating (she is a Labrador)! But she was reluctant to go for a walk. One evening she was particularly bad, and I decided that this might be the end. I was not going to allow her to suffer more.

However, I decided to do a web search to see if anyone else had written about an elderly dog who had lost control of her hind legs, and how they could be treated with homeopathy. There were several websites, and all of them suggested the remedies that I had already tried. However, one discussion outlined how none of these remedies worked; and the homeopath, perhaps rather despairingly, had said, "Well, if none of those remedies have worked, you might try Calc Phos".

So I decided, as a last resort, to try Tess with Calc Phos. I looked up the remedy in the Materia Medica (which homeopaths use to link symptoms of illness with known remedy symptoms) and did not feel that the remedy was particularly relevant to her. But there was nothing else that came to mind.

Calc Phos worked wonders within a couple of days. It is several months on now, and there has been no trip to the vet! She remains an elderly Labrador. She does not walk quickly, or very far now. She still has difficulty walking on shiny flat floors in the house. But she is as well as anyone could expect of a 15 year old dog - and she is still enjoying life.

The remedy will not work for every dog with rear leg weakness, but it is a remedy that is certainly worth trying. I am so glad I stumbled upon it - it is what happens, sometimes, with homeopathy!

Vaccines: What does giving 'Informed Consent' entail?

In medicine, it appears to be generally agreed that 'Informed Consent' is important before any patient gives consent for medical treatment. However, it is clearly not universally agreed as during the last few years, during the Covid-19 Pandemic, the Conventional Medical Establishment has been party to, and supportive of, enforced or mandatory vaccination. And pharmaceutical medicine has a reputation for providing patients with "the good news" whilst remaining silent about "the bad news".

So what does giving 'Informed Consent' actually mean? Simply it is that every patient should be fully aware of both the benefits, and the risks of the proposed treatment. When pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines are involved, the expected/potential benefits are always made clear. However, the risks are not; usually most conventional medical treatment is routinely described as "safe and effective".

What follows was originally posted on X by Jessica Rojas: https://twitter.com/catsscareme2021: and it is reposted here with her permission (she merely requests that you consider following her on her X (or Twitter) account. It focuses on America (although the situation is similar here in Britain and elsewhere), and focuses on the USA vaccine schedule (although similar questions can be asked regarding most conventional medical treatments).

Read it carefully - and note the complexity of the information you need before you can truly give your 'informed consent' to treatment. It is information that is not usually provided to patients prior to treatment.

   "If you are a parent who follows the CDCs VACCINE schedule, here are some facts you need to know and understand to make an informed decision.

1. I understand that the pharmaceutical company who made this vaccine has NO liability.

2. I understand that I pay a $0.75 Federal Excise Tax per vaccine, used to pay vaccine injured families through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) created by the government.

3. I understand that this vaccine contains neurotoxins such as aluminum that far exceeds “safe levels” deemed by the EPA.

4. I understand that this vaccine contains carcinogenic ingredients.

5. I understand that this vaccine was made from aborted fetal cell lines, animal and bug cells.

6. I understand that getting this vaccine does not ensure that I will be protected from the disease.

7. I understand that my child could get the very illness they was vaccinated for.

8. I understand that my child could be a carrier of the illnesses/he was vaccinated for and spread it (“shedding”) for up to six weeks.

9. I understand that my doctor may get monetarily rewarded for having a high percentage of his/her patients who are fully vaccinated.

10. I understand that if my child is injured by a vaccine, my doctor would have to spend an exorbitant amount of hours filling out paper work in order to report it to VAERS (the only way to officially report a vaccine injury).

11. I understand that my doctor has no incentive to fill out paperwork for a vaccine injury.

12. I understand that vaccine injury is under-reported.

13. I understand that vaccine mandates (like SB277) literally hand over new customers to pharmaceutical companies.

14. I understand that pharmaceutical companies have no incentive to make their product better.

15. I understand that pharmaceutical companies spend up to 4x more on advertising than they do on research.

16. I understand that corporate media gets 70% of their advertising revenue from pharmaceutical companies.

17. I understand that corporate media does not want to lose revenue, certainly not 70% of it.

18. I understand that when pharmaceutical companies conduct a study (on their own product) it is in their best interest to have a favorable outcome.

19. I understand that this vaccine schedule has never been tested on children collectively and ACIP assumes it's safe as long as different limbs are used for injection.

20. I understand that this vaccine could cause injury or death, and my child could be one of them.

21. My doctor has informed me on all the risks and side effects and has reviewed the vaccine insert with me.

22. I understand that if my child dies from this vaccine I will be awarded no more than $250,000 and most cases are never heard.

23. I understand that not one vaccine has gone through a saline placebo, double-blind study.

24. I am making an informed choice to vaccinate my child.

So if you have all this information prior to agreeing too, and receiving any medical treatment, you will be able to make a fully informed choice. Otherwise, think again! Good luck!

 

Homeopathy for Older People

People often link old age with illness. To be old is to be ill.  The two go together.  How often have people been told – “you must accept that when you get to your age”.  The ‘that’ can be almost anything!  The ‘your age’ can be anything over 30!  The medical profession is often the worst offender. 

There is a story about a man who went to see his doctor because he had arthritis in his right knee. The doctor noted that he was 92 and suggested that he should accept some pain at his age.  However, the man reminded him he had another knee, the same age, which had not pain.  Perhaps the story is apocryphal, but it is an excellent point that he made.

Homeopathy considers that an illness is an illness regardless of age.  If it is treatable at 6 it is treatable at 60.  If it is treatable at 19 it is treatable at 90.  Often, age is used as an excuse for doing nothing, for fobbing people off, for laziness, or for having nothing more useful to offer.  It results from ageism, a means of discriminating against older people, undervaluing them, and not treating them on equal terms with younger people.

Of course, it is not quite as easy or straightforward as this.  Age increases our susceptibility to illness.  Ageing may mean that we may have ‘abused’ our body for longer, and it is now less able to cope – bad diet, too much stress, too much alcohol, and a host of other factors do take their toll in time.  If this is the cause of illness a change of lifestyle, and taking more care of the body, is as useful as homeopathy.

Homeopathy can treat all illnesses and disease. It can even help people to cope with the feelings of loneliness that so often affect older people. In doing so it works quite differently to conventional medicine. It works alongside the body, helping to support it in performing its normal functions, its natural ability to maintain itself.  

Conventional drugs tend to be grouped together until titles beginning with “anti-“ – anti-biotics, anti-histamines, etc; or it works to suppress or kill pain.  In other words it seeks to change the normal working of the body, to force it to do something it would not do itself.  The body usually struggles against this; so it overcomes pain killers, and bacteria becomes resistant to anti-biotics.  Ailments that are suppressed return, often in a more serious or more painful form. This often leads to an increasing dependence on drugs.

        “About half of all senior patients take several prescribed… drugs simultaneously, and frequently over prolonged periods.  Many conditions mistakenly considered new diseases are, in fact, unrecognised drug interactions.  Doctors then prescribe yet more drugs to solve the new problems, which only makes matters worse… The greatest overuse of medicine is among the institutionalised elderly.  The average nursing home patient received eight different drugs a day”.
What Doctor’s Don’t Tell You (April 2002)

Homeopathy is an alternative to conventional treatment.  It does not produce miracles but it can make people feel better when they have long believed that their illness is untreatable, or their pain an inevitable part of old age.  It is often more complicated treating older people, especially if there has been a long history of illness, drug taking, and operations.  This makes treatment a longer process, and often one that can only ameliorate pain and illness.  But this is often all that older people expect.  And the advantage of homeopathy is simply stated - it will not make matters worse.