Apologies. The disruption caused by the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the writing of this, now, annual blog. The fear and panic generated by medical science, government and media in response to the virus, still ongoing, has taken the focus away from what would otherwise have been the usual winter NHS crisis >> increased patient demand >> inability to cope >> demands for more resources.
Yet crisis it undoubtedly is, just like any other year, but perhaps just a trifle more serious. Once government and the conventional medical establishment realised there was an epidemic, and no conventional treatment, everything else hitherto considered important was thrown out - the baby alongside with the bathwater. Government policy made this clear.
STAY HOME - this was the central policy, an alternative to effective medical treatment, that has led inevitably to all the social, educational and economic distress and mayhem that it caused, and continues to cause.
..... SAVE THE NHS - the first stated, and primary objective of policy. It was made clear from the start that government knew conventional medicine, and the NHS, would be overwhelmed, and they determined that this had to be avoided at any cost as a top priority.
.......... SAVE LIVES - the next objective, something statistics can even now demonstrate has singularly failed. Fantastic hospital care, but no treatment, with NHS staff having to watch helplessly whilst over 40,000 people died in front of them.
- From March onwards more and more money was pumped into the NHS - "whatever it takes" according to government rhetoric. At some point, maybe, we will be told exactly how much additional money has been spent to prop up a failed medical system.
- At the same time most 'routine' work with cancer, heart and other priority patients was cancelled or postponed. Dealing with the virus was now the priority - saving the NHS from collapse. In addition, the panic generated by the NHS discouraged people from seeing their doctors, or attending hospital, when formerly they might have done.
So the consequences of NHS, and conventional medical failure this year is going to stretch onwards into the rest of the year, and beyond.
This morning, 10th June 2020), BBC News heralded some of the early cries of alarm that underline the new 2020 NHS crisis. Here are the headlines, taken from the NHS Confederation, a body representing health and care leaders from organisations that commission and provide health services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- NHS bosses fear the Covid-19 crisis could see the number of people waiting for NHS treatment double to 10 million by the end of the year.
- NHS Confederation projections show that the NHS waiting list is expected to
rise from about 4.2 million currently to about 10 million by Christmas.
- It says that the NHS faces an "uphill
battle" trying to restart cancer, stroke and heart care services,
whilst at the same time continuing to manage thousands of sick and recovering Covid-19
patient.
Predictably the NHS Confederation said that more money would be needed. Equally predictably the Department of Health responded, saying it will continue to provide the resources, funding and support the NHS needs. So the never-ending pattern of NHS failure continues.
>>> sickness >>> money >>> more sickness >>> more money >>> even more sickness >>> etc
>>> sickness >>> treatment >>> still sick >>> drug side effects >>> more sickness >>> more treatment >>> even more side effects >>> even more sickness >>> etc
The NHS crisis of winter 2020 has been different only in that there has been one serious additional problem - coronavirus has led to the death of rather more people than usually die of influenza every year. In most years 'routine' surgery is cancelled. This year the panic response has led to the termination of all treatment for people with cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other serious medical conditions.
So will the outcome be any different? It might be. Even the NHS Confederation provides this warning for the future.
"The bigger point being made by the confederation is that the government in Westminster needs to think very hard about how the health service is managed in the months ahead and how patients' expectations should be prepared." (my emphasis).
Managing patient expectations! What does this mean? In past years government money has always been made available to the NHS so that they are able to meet the ever-increasing patient demand for treatment. It is these demands that are now going to have to be managed, the implication being that ploughing even more money into the NHS may prove to be difficult. Why is this?
The demand side is not changing. Conventional medicine's inability to treat illness is ongoing; conventional medical treatment continues to generate increasing levels of illness and disease; and coronavirus is predicted to continue, adding yet more demands on NHS treatment (treatment it does not have).
The supply side, however, is weakening. The lockdown policies pursued by the government, an alternative to effective medical treatment, is destroying the economy. A recession is in prospect, perhaps even a depression. Millions are losing their jobs; they will require government expenditure on unemployment benefits, et al. At the same time tax revenues will be drastically reduced. There are already demands for additional government spending in every other part of the national economy - education, social care, police, local government - almost everywhere you look.
So perhaps for the very first time the UK government will find itself unable to respond to the constant demands for increased NHS funding. There will be a health crisis that cannot be hidden, brushed under the carpet, by yet more spending. Perhaps then more searching questions will begin to be asked.
- Why is the huge £150 billion NHS budget not enough?
- What value, in terms of patient outcomes, does the NHS actually provide?
- Why aren't patients getting better with conventional medical treatment?
- Why is chronic disease, in all its many guises, increasing so rapidly, year by year?
- Why is there no conventional medical treatment for infectious diseases wherever, and whenever they occur?
- IS THERE NOT A BETTER, MORE EFFECTIVE WAY TO SPEND THE HEALTH BUDGET?
The NHS had transformed itself into a monopoly supplier of one type of medicine. It is deeply hostile to natural medical therapies, like homeopathy, which it has almost totally barred them from the NHS. So whatever the problems the NHS now faces they have been caused by conventional medicine - its inability make sick people well, its willingness to use treatments whose 'side effects' demonstrably cause patient harm.
Perhaps then the NHS will be forced to look at what some other countries are doing, like Cuba, and India (particularly in one southern province, Kerala), where patient outcome comparisons can now be made between conventional and natural medical treatment.
Or perhaps I am being too optimistic. The pharmaceutical industry remains financially strong, and it uses its wealth to control the NHS, the government, and the mainstream media. Too few people have analysed what is happening - that we are constantly throwing more and more money into a bottomless pit.
