- Conservative election poster 2010
A few recent news articles about the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat (Conservative) coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.
NHS news continues to be dominated by substandard breast implants by the former French company PIP. There are suggestions that private companies involved in originally installing implants are trying to avoid their responsibilities now that the goods are shown to be faulty.
An investigation by mental health charity Mencap claims that institutional discrimination against people with learning disabilities led to at least 74 deaths.
NHS accused over deaths of disabled patients | Society | The Guardian
The NHS is accused of causing or contributing to the deaths of at least 74 patients with a learning disability because of poor care that reveals enduring “institutional discrimination” among doctors and nurses.
The 74 vulnerable patients’ deaths over the past decade were either caused or complicated by mistakes in hospitals and decisions by staff who failed to treat them properly and displayed ignorance or indifference to their plight, according to the charity Mencap and families of some of those who died.
Inquiries by Mencap into the deaths raise searching questions for the NHS, which has been criticised in a series of recent reports for providing poor care, especially to older patients. The parliamentary and health service ombudsman, Ann Abraham, has already ruled that four of the cases highlighted were avoidable deaths and found serious failings in eight others. Inquest verdicts also confirm failings occurred in several cases.
“These cases are a damning indictment of NHS care for people with a learning disability,” said David Congdon, Mencap’s head of campaigns and policy. “They confirm that too many parts of the health service still do not understand how to treat people with a learning disability and they are an appalling catalogue of neglect and indignity. As a result of institutional discrimination in the NHS, people with a learning disability are dying when their lives could be saved.”
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In other news, many commuters returning to work today are facing increased fares. Rail transport was a public industry until privatised by a Conservative government transforming it into an expensive, chaotic, poor-quality service run for the benefit of rich Capitalist scum. Privatisation of the UK’s rail service serves as a warning for the Con-Dem coalition government’s intention to privatise the UK’s national health service (NHS).
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Since yesterday some rail travellers have seen the price of their tickets go up by more than 10% in comparison with fare prices last January.
The Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) has urged rail travellers to contact the Treasury by tweets, text messages or phone calls to show Chancellor George Osborne their anger at the increases.
The CBT is joining the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association in a demonstration against the fare rises which is being held outside St Pancras station in London.
Last week the CBT released figures which showed that some British commuters are paying between three-and-a-half and nearly 10 times more for some season tickets than some of their European counterparts.
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