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Thursday 4 February 2016

Britain's NHS in crisis (Winter 2016)

The British NHS is in crisis. And no-where is this made more obvious than in the doctor's magazine, Pulse. During the past two days, alone, the topics covered have emphasised that the conventional medical establishment is progressively failing to cope with the demands of patients.

Any regular reader of this blog will know the reason for this crisis. It is entirely predictable. For years, increased demand for conventional medical services, through the NHS, has been funded by regular, andmassive increases in expenditure. Now, despite the huge amounts being spent on the NHS, demand for health services continues to rise, and government money is running out!

Why should this be? The NHS is dominated by pharmaceutical drugs. These drugs cause 'side effects', which are really new diseases. In other words, treat an illness with drugs, and patients get sicker, their demands increase. So many chronic diseases are now running at epidemic levels - asthma, autism, arthritis, cancer, dementia, heart disease, et al. The failure of drugs to deal effectively with any of these conditions leads to increased surgery, to increased levels of health care needs, blocked hospital beds, waiting lists increase, and so on.

Reading these articles from the GP magazine 'Pulse' demonstrates all this.

Revealed: GP training targets in doubt as applications tumble 5%
There is a shortage of doctors going into general practice. The government wants to increase the number of GPs by 5,000 over the next 4 years. One way of increasing the supply of doctors is to train more, but unfortunately those wishing to enter has been diminishing for a number of years, and this despite considerable advertising.

Over 100 GP trainees set for £20k 'golden hello' to work in areas with shortages
The shortage of doctors is particularly apparent in certain areas, and there is now a £20,000 incentive for new doctors to go to these areas. However, doctors leaders are saying that there needs to be a greater incentive than this. It would appear that there are few limits to the demands being made on the NHS to provide conventional medicine!

600 practices could benefit from £10m NHS 'vulnerable practice' fund
The financial pressures on some GP practices has led to the Department of Health providing a pot of £10 million to support them. This article says that 600 practices are vulnerable, and need help from this scheme - highlighting exactly how deep the failure is with the NHS.

Closer inspection of practices’ antibiotics prescribing
Doctors have been asked to restrict the prescription of antibiotics drugs for many years, not because of the dangers, but because resistance to the drugs is now reaching the stage when no antibiotic works in treating infection. So the NHS is trying to force doctors to stop prescribing them. This means that the most magic of all the 'magic bullets' of conventional medicine is failing, and this will have dire consequences for any patient who continues to rely on drugs for health. Similarly, conventional medicine is trying to reduce the prescription of painkillers and antidepressants because of their serious side effects.

Local council strips GP practices of NHS Health Checks
Despite the vast sums spent directly on the NHS, local councils have hitherto also had budgets to spend on conventional health care, notably the NHS Health Checks programme. This expenditure is now being reduced or stopped, placing further strain on doctors.

1 in 10 young people treated for depression actually have undiagnosed bipolar disorder
A study has found that conventional medicine's ability to diagnose illness is poor. For depression and bipolar we can insert almost any other disease. Testing is at the heart of the practice of conventional medicine and it is regularly found wanting. So even though all drugs produce side effects (new diseases) doctors are giving patients the wrong drugs!

Chronic fatigue syndrome affects 2% of teens, study finds
Chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME was not even recognised as an illness within the NHS twenty years ago! Now a study finds that 2% of teenagers suffers from it! Teenagers! Not older people. No young children. What is causing this epidemic in people who should be at the height of wellness? The article does not say, but we now have a population of young people who have had multiple vaccinations, antibiotics, painkillers, and much else, than any other generation. And it is making them sicker than ever before!

Trusts unable to keep up with increase in GP cancer referrals
Inability to cope with chronic disease is at the heart of the failure of conventional drug-based medicine. It is pharmaceutical drugs that increase the incidence of diseases such as cancer. And conventional medicine is unable to cope with the demands being made upon it. We can replace cancer with almost any other serious chronic disease. They are running at ever-increasing, epidemic levels. Cancer used to be considered to be a disease caused by ageing. Yet young children and babies are now contracting cancer, in ever increasing numbers. And the conventional medical system does not recognise the part played by pharmaceutical drugs in generating this situation.

This article also emphasises that the failure of our GP's does not stop at the surgery, they are passed on to the hospitals, where demand for services has been increasing for decades, and demands on Accident and Emergency units, through to demands for end of life care, all require more resources.

Corbyn grills Cameron on cancer diagnostics waits
The failure of conventional medicine to deal with the cancer epidemic is highlighted again by Pulse in this article, which reports that the Leader of the Opposition has 'grilled' the Prime Minister about the failure of the NHS to cope with the demand for cancer treatment. It has long been part of the political battle over the British NHS - which political party is proposing to spend most on propping up the conventional medical system. The bidding and outbidding continues, with no recognition that money and resources is not the issue. The issue is that we are spending money on a failed medical system!

The comments made at the foot of each of these articles are made by doctors who appear to have little idea of what is happening. 

They want more money, because if they could have more money they could do a better job. But for decades they have been given increased budgets, and nothing has change. There is little or no understanding that they are part of a failed medical experiment. Their drugs do not work. They make matters worse. More money will only mean more drugs, more side effects, and more sickness and disease.

So through these articles, Pulse appears to know what the problem is. But unfortunately it has no answers, other than adding more resources to a failing enterprise. Remember, that these articles are just those appearing in one magazine, over two days, covering just one part of the NHS. Every day, in every area of the NHS, similar stories are appearing - about increased sickness and disease - about difficulties in coping with demand - about the need for more resources.

When a ship is travelling in the wrong direction the captain needs to turn it around, to find a new course, and follow it. There is little points increasing power and speed. However, first it is necessary for the captain to recognise it is moving in the wrong direction!