Thursday, May 17, 2007

Nadine Socks it to Labour on the NHS

On last night's END OF THE DAY SHOW Tory MP (and former A & E nurse) Nadine Dorries told us why government targets are costing lives in the NHS. It's an impassioned performance.



So how on earth can the government justify closing up to half of our A & facilities across the country? It's madness. Remember when they said they had 24 hours to save the NHS?!

UPDATE: And if you want a laugh - or even a titter - click HERE to watch Nadine play Either/Or

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nadine Norries is probably the least intelligent MP in the current Parliament.

Anonymous said...

Aren't you confusing her with 'shagger' Norris the non-MP?

Iain is in danger of believing his own propaganda. Yes, A&E mergers may well be on the line, but anyone who believes the Tories would not have done them long ago to save money is away in the land of the fairies! The Tories paved the way for these changes wit their Health Authority mergers in the '90s.

Anonymous said...

You're right, Iain, that is a superb performance. Would love to hear Patricia Hewitt (wait, did I just write that?) try and defend that.

Nadine Dorries is shadow cabinet material. Let's hope DC was watching.

Ezra, it's Dorries rather than Norries - and have you forgotten about John Prescott? Or, for that matter, the ludicrous Dawn Primarolo? Nadine has a hugely impressive cv, which includes sitting on the board for BUPA. She's a proper self-made woman, too, having grown up on a council estate and attended a comprehensive. How exactly is she anything other than intelligent?

Anonymous said...

esza needs to provide evidence for his claim, otherwise I personally conclude that ezra's definition of intelligence is related to sharing his world view when in fact not sharing it might indicate both intelligence and an unwillingness to arselick ezra's favourite protagonists.

What comes across repeatedly is the exceptionally low IQs of those running this government. Time and time again they introduce measures which are extremely damaging and countrary to their objectives which are not always dishonourable. I propose compulsory IQ testing for all MPs, with higher figures for Government minsters and their advisors.

The basic level would be that established as the minimum necessary to successfully run a whelk stall.

A levels so dumbed down that it is impossible for University dons to make unbiased selections between average and strong candidates.
Combined Science GCSE exacerbates the already serious decline in Science A level.
University teachers having to give remedial lessons in Maths and other subjects before they can begin to teach degree course work.
Child arrested for throwing a cream bun.
Human Rights Act ensures the streets abound with alien rapists, murderers, terrorists and other undesirables.
No reliable system in place to ensure that people we dont want and did nor invite are not removed even after serving prison sentences for serious crime.
Etc

Praguetory said...

Admit it Iain, you fancy her. I do, too, but I'm not dancing around it.

Anonymous said...

"Nadine Dorries is shadow cabinet material."

ha ha ha ha ha !!!

That is the funniest thing I have heard all day !! After slagging off Dave Cameron for a crime he did not commit, She has as much chance of a walk on the moon as getting into the Shadow cabinet...

Truly a 'Mystic Mog' prediction if ever I heard one..

Anonymous said...
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The Hitch said...

Mr Prague
Surely you haven't allowed yourself to imagine the lady in a crisply starched uniform, sat on the side of your hospital bed, taking your temperature whilst constantly crossing and uncrossing her black nylon clad legs?
Perhaps before drawing the curtain and suggesting that you appear to be a little "tense"?
If so you should be ashamed of yourself.

Anonymous said...

hitch - you really are desperate..

The Hitch said...
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Anonymous said...

Half the A&E departments in the country are populated by drunks and psychopaths. The problem is, you can't predict which half. Better to close them all down, in my humble opinion (and hand the taxes back to normal people instead).

Anonymous said...

As a footnote, the official definition of an accessible Supermarket is reachable within 15 minutes. What is the official definition of an accessible A & E dept bearing in mind a double journey and potential waiting time will be involved in the more serious cases before arriving at hospital?

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Anonymous said...

It's also madness that the Tories have said that they are not for
grammar schools.

I think they have lost the bloody plot, in the urge for re-election.

Correct that, Iain please. ASAP. Otherwise this vote remains on the back burner.

The Remittance Man said...

"Half the A&E departments in the country are populated by drunks and psychopaths."

Would you be refering to the staff or the patients, Mr. Anon?

And so what if Ms Dorries had the misfortune to grow up on a Liverpudlian council estate? From what I've seen she's done admirably well to overcome that handicap - certainly well enough to forgive a Scouse accent.

By the way, Mr Hitch. I had managed to avoid such creative and distracting imaginings until you suggested them. Damn your fine prose, sir.

Anonymous said...

She is an example of all that is wrong with politics - talking in absolutes. She has completely ignored the fact that there is a trade off to be made: fewer A&E units offering more specialised care versus longer travel times. There seems to be a view emerging from the medical profession that it is probably better to go down the route of fewer units, although there is not yet a consensus on that.
It would have been good to gave had an intelligent discussion that acknowledged the fact that you can't have both short travel times and super specialised care - they are mutually exclusive.

Anonymous said...

She could take me for a walk and scratch my tummy any time she is free.

Anonymous said...

New Labour should rebrand them Accident Units - and just forget the Emergency part.

We could make the ambulance drivers redundant and people could take public transport.

Chris Paul said...

Unfortunately one of the big losers in NHS changes has been residential care for Psychiatric patients. Ms Dorries will sadly have to stay in the community even though she presents a danger to herself and others. Ga ga. Say it again ga ga. Joke.

Nadine needs to remember where the NHS was at 10 years ago and admit it is in a better place now.

Paramedics and even Drs in ambulances and on motorbikes and fewer but much better A&Es is a trade off that is worth considering and which figures suggest can save not endanger lives.

Tory counsel of perfection in areas where they themselves messed up horrendously badly is not going to convince anyone of anything.

Anonymous said...

I suppose Nadine Norries would oppose Kings College Hospital's initiative to improve care for heart attack victimes. From the King's web-site: "Instead of being taken to the nearest A&E department, patients will be brought directly into King’s specialist cardiac centre for a treatment known as primary angioplasty" (www.kch.nhs.uk/index.asp?pgid=2110)

So extended journey times are worth the trade-off in terms of better care. But would this be permitted in Nadine's silly little world?

Anonymous said...

"A bullet in the head for the lot of them would be a criminal waste of metal."

It is so good to know that sacrifices our fore-fathers made in the Second World War to fight against prejudice and the Nazis have been such a waste of time...Fuck off to the BNP if this is your approach to human rights-you have absolutely no claim on political debate in this country.

I love the way that you think anyone with racist/Nazi/Aryan sympathies is 'left-wing'..

Anonymous said...

Sorry Iain, Nadine was on WATO yesterday and said the changes to embryo research was a 'gift' to her because she'd be able to piggy back her own pet obsession as an amendment.

I already had my doubts about her genuineness, and such un-principled opportunism has confirmed my opposition to her.

Anonymous said...

Mitch, that is standard Parliamentary procedure and has been for many years. What is your issue? Sounds like you are just finding excuses to disagree with her.

Also, I'm not sure how hating gypsies ever made it on to this thread, but regardless - it can't be 'racist' as they are not a race. (Anon 9.11 and others)

Anonymous said...

"And she is racist enough to hate the Roma travelling community."

As do all of us who have had any contact whatsoever with that pillaging band of brigands.

It is not "racist" to despise wandering mobs of violent thieving crooks and the weak-kneed, politically correct authorities who protect and pander to them at the expense of the indigenous population.

Old BE said...

patients will be brought directly into King’s specialist cardiac centre for a treatment known as primary angioplasty

Is that the procedure which is so outdated and dangerous that no other European country uses it anymore?

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Actually, there's very little one can do with some unforseen illnesses, such as a sudden diabetic collapse (which can lead to a coma).

The Paramedics which arrived within minutes to one scene I witnessed, knew exactly what to do. I couldn't lift the patient, only make her comfortable. She couldn't/wouldn't take the sugar/glucose solution because she was out of it totally, and I didn't have the emergency injection kit (now freely available), to revive her.

I had no alternative but to dial 999, and after their kind administrations, we all recovered!

However, the same person is now denied a visit to her Consultant, cannot get the regular eye tests she used to get at the hospital, and is pushed onto her GP, who, although a good guy, has little scope than to pass her on to their nurse, who ends up taking tests and not much else.

Luckily, the lady in question takes her condition very seriously, and has been able to stay under near total control for 37 years.

During the times I helped her out on travelling in the old days, I used to see all the other patients at the clinic, and most of them seemed to have nowhere near her level of self-concern.

I'ts bad enough being 'Type One' diabetic in the first place, but I fear for these people, because, they are amongst the millions now being sidelined by Nulab's drastic NHS cuts.

Anonymous said...

Is that the procedure which is so outdated and dangerous that no other European country uses it anymore?

No.

See "Primary Angioplasty for Acute Myocardial Infarction —
Is It Worth the Wait?" (New England Journal of Medicine August 03) - the authors conclude that in general it is worth the wait, as long as the wait is not too long (less than an hour).

Anonymous said...

Wrong. I live in a rural area and the nearest A&E is some 20 miles away. Even then, heart attacks are dealt with by a limited team and one is then sent 60 miles further to another county.

The governments plans are to reduce A&E departments and increase smaller accident units in their place which will be closer to communities. GP surgeries will become minor injury units etc. Larger units will become specialised in trauma, heart problems etc.

In the evnt that I will need emergency treatment, I will be much more likely to survive under the new units than currently.

Just thought I should put an alternate view - not all reorganisation is wrong!

Machiavelli's Understudy said...

Nadine needs to remember where the NHS was at 10 years ago and admit it is in a better place now.

Funnily enough, my dentist and I weres saying the exact same thing yesterday when we were talking about the three year waiting list for a dentist in my area...

The Remittance Man said...

btw, can someone provide some sort of evidence for these "she's racist who hates pykies" alegations.

Has she gone on national television and espoused rounding them up and gassing them or did she merely say that the conduct of (some) Roma is unacceptable?

Just asking.

Rachel Joyce said...

Of course we want to move to more specialised units where it matters. Major trauma units should serve 3 million with air ambulances - heart attack victims need angioplasty at a heart attack centre - strokes need thrombolysis at a stroke centre (both need about 1 million population). But this does not mean we need to shut local hospitals down. It isn't just about A&Es, it's about the whole hospital as well. The thing that is not said is that govt policy wants much of the specialist care currently happening in your local hospital by a specialist is now going to be done by a GP with a bit of extra training - it is being called "care closer to home". Sometimes this is better for patients, but PCTs have a mammoth task in making sure it is safe, effective, and doesn't end up costing more by increasing demand without improving outcomes.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all the posts from all the virulently 'anti tory' posters. Of course emergency vehicles should have to travel further!. Wicked Nadine! We all know that 'real people' live in large towns where there will probably still be a super duper specialized A&E. We in NuLabour think 'Country Bumpkins' especially should be culled. Psst! Don't tell anyone. Everyone should realise that NuLabour policy is handed down from a cuddly lefty slightly atheist GOD and it is perversely counter-revolutionary to argue against it. Worship the great project, worship the great project, Gordon is the Messiah, Gordon is the Messiah. Democracy is sacred, Democracy is sacred, NuLabour should be the only party, NuLabour should be the only party.

Matthew Cain said...

Is the government really considering closing half of all A&E departments? That's not what the DoH claims. Follow the link here to make up your own mind. http://newscounter.com/fullStory.jsp?id=458545

Anonymous said...

Agreed, Nadine truly is an idiot. If only all health care decisions were made made by some ex-nurse with a loud mouth and no brains.

Paramedic training has advanced along with general treatments provided by the NHS from 10-20 years ago, allowing for this change.

NHS hospitals must adapt and change from being the Tescos of medical provision : providing every single service under one roof, but to a lower standard than that could be provided by at specialized facilities.

Anonymous said...

Have you seen Patricia Hewitt's performance over the last few weeks?

I believe the most compelling argument against any healthcare policy is that this government had a hand in it.