Years Of Government Austerity Has Led To The Rise Of Victorian Diseases

Kidney Cancer Often Goes Unnoticed.
Kidney cancer is one of the most common forms of disease in the UK, but patients often don’t realise they have it until it gets picked up by an unrelated medical test.
There are around 13,000 new cases every year and the NHS says it usually affects adults in their 60s or 70s, and is rare in people under 50.
It can often be cured if found early enough, but can be harder to treat if it has spread beyond the kidney.
Part of the urinary system, the kidneys filter waste products out of the blood and make urine.
Cancer Research UK says kidney disease has around a 52% survival rate, with some 34% of cases deemed preventable.
Unfortunately, despite its prevalence, kidney cancer often goes unnoticed as around half of cases don’t display any symptoms, according to the NHS.
( Paul Speed, 12.05.2023 )  ..  mirror.co.uk

Years Of Government Austerity Has Led To The Rise Of Victorian Diseases.
Tens of thousands of people in England were hospitalised with malnutrition last year (2022), according to reports in The Times.
Provisional data obtained by the newspaper’s Health Commission under freedom of information laws reveal that cases of malnutrition have more than doubled in a decade and have quadrupled since 2007/2008.
From 2022 to April 2023, 10,896 NHS patients — including 312 children — were hospitalised with the condition in England.

It comes as doctors warn that the cost of living crisis has also led to a rise in “Victorian” illnesses such as scurvy and rickets.
Figures show that 171 people were treated for scurvy and 482 patients were admitted with rickets, 405 of them children.
Scurvy is a disease caused by severe vitamin C deficiency, typically in the elderly, while rickets is caused by prolonged vitamin D deficiency, typically in children.

Dr Clare Gerada, president of the Royal College of GPs, said: “The poorest people in this country are poorer than any other counterparts in Europe. The most common reason a child under five has a general anaesthetic now is for dental care, so that’s a sign of malnutrition. This isn’t about the health system, it’s about the social determinants of ill health, indicative of the last 15 years of austerity.”

Dr Gerada also said the obesity epidemic was another indicator of malnutrition, with most children who are obese more likely to be vitamin D deficient “because they’re not getting the right calories”.
“People are doing without. Parents are struggling to do the basics for their children. We’re going back to a situation where unless we look after our poor, we’re going to end up with more of these diseases of the Victorian era”.
“We won’t end up like the Victorians because it’ll all be sorted by a tablet but it’s a sad environment that we have to sort out poverty by giving out vitamin supplements.”
( Jack Peat, 10.07.2023 )  ..  thelondoneconomic.com

Hospital A&E Delays Could Be Causing As Many As 500 Deaths Every Week.
As many as 500 people could be dying each week because of delays to emergency care.
The president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Adrian Boyle, believes waiting times for December 2022 will be the worst he has ever seen, with more than a dozen NHS trusts and ambulance services declaring critical incidents over the festive period.
A severe flu outbreak and rising Covid cases are said to be adding pressure to the system and overwhelming hospitals with patients.
In November 2022, 37,837 patients waited more than 12 hours in A&E for a decision to be admitted to a hospital department, according to figures from NHS England.
This is an increase of almost 355% compared with the previous November, when an estimated 10,646 patients waited longer than 12 hours.
( The Guardian, 01.01.2023 )  ..  theguardian.com

Private Hospitals Were Paid Around £2Billion To Help The NHS During The First Year Of The COVID Pandemic, But Did Very Little.
An investigation by The British Medical Journal has found that just 30 of the 200 private hospitals were used to treat patients with COVID-19 in April 2020 when the first pandemic wave hit its peak.
In a “major deal” announced on March 21, 2020, NHS England bought the entire capacity of 200 private hospitals, including 8,000 private beds, 1,200 ventilators, 700 doctors and 10,000 nurses, to help the NHS care for patients with COVID-19, with cancer, or needing urgent operations.
By April 12, 2020, when the number of patients with COVID-19 in England’s hospitals had hit its peak, NHS hospitals in England were treating 18,921 inpatients with COVID-19, 2881 of them on mechanical ventilation.
On the same day, only 52 were being treated in private sector hospitals under the national contract.
Data shows that the contracted private hospitals devoted much of its episodes of inpatient care to private patients rather than NHS patients in the first year of the pandemic (April 1, 2020 to March 32, 2021), despite NHS England paying the hospitals’ expenses.
( British Medical Journal, 15.02.2023 )  ..  medicalexpress.com

Huntington’s Disease, An Inherited Disorder Of The Brain.
Around 7,000 British people are living with an inherited disorder of the brain which significantly reduces life expectancy, known as Huntington’s disease.
The devastating condition damages nerve cells within the brain, progressively impacting a person’s ability to communicate, walk, talk and think.
According to Brain Research UK, it is caused by a faulty gene on chromosome 4 – the huntingtin gene ( HTT ) – which is passed down through families.
If someone has a parent who carries the faulty gene, they have a 50/50 chance of inheriting the gene.
It has previously been described as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and motor neurone disease all rolled into one, due to its debilitating nature.
In most cases, symptoms usually strike between the ages of 30 to 50, with just 5% to 10% of patients developing it before the age of 20.
The first symptoms usually involve personality and behaviour changes, including mood swings, irritability, depression, and problems with memory, thinking and judgement.
Over time, someone with the condition may develop involuntary jerking or fidgety movements of the limbs, personality changes, difficulties with speaking, swallowing and moving.
The NHS explains that during the later stages, “people with Huntington’s disease find daily activities increasingly difficult and will need full-time nursing care”.
( Freya Hodgson, 14.05.2023 )  ..  mirror.co.uk

Artificial Sweeteners Linked To Cancer.
Artificially sweetened drinks such as Diet Coke and a version of Red Bull could contain cell-destroying ingredients that increase your risk of cancer.
Diet Coke and Red Bull Sugarfree contain a sweetener known as sucralose, sold under the brand name Splenda, which when digested, becomes genotoxic, meaning it breaks up DNA.
As the sucralose reaches the gut, a chemical called sucralose-6-acetate is produced.
In a series of test tube experiments, researchers exposed human blood cells to sucralose-6-acetate, observing that it “effectively broke up DNA in cells that were exposed to the chemical”.
They also exposed human gut tissues to sucralose and sucralose-6-acetate in a series of tests and found that both chemicals caused a “leaky gut” – meaning waste products usually flushed through our systems leak into the bloodstream.
The study also found sucralose-6-acetate had inflammation and carcinogenic effects.
A carcinogen is a substance or organism that is capable of causing cancer.
( Abigail O’Leary, 02.06.2023 )  ..  mirror.co.uk

The Tories Are Secretly Planning To Privatise The National Health Service.
Boris Johnson privately discussed privatising the NHS with Donald Trump, according to a new biography of the former Prime Minister.
The claim, which is contained in an extract from “Johnson at 10: The Inside Story” by Anthony Seldon, published by The Times, suggests that the former PM asked Trump not to publicly mention their discussions as they could create “mischief” if they were to become widely known.
However, he suggested that they could privately discuss it together.
“Some people in my party and other parties might make mischief if you talk about doing that, Donald,” Johnson told him. “Let’s talk about it all you like in private when you’re here, but we can keep it to ourselves.”
Claims of secret talks between the two countries about privatising the NHS were denied at the time.
Johnson’s Government faced allegations in 2019 of secretly planning to privatise the National Health Service as part of a post-Brexit trade deal with the U.S.
At the time, then Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn published official documents suggesting UK officials had been in secret trade talks with U.S. firms about the NHS.
The documents suggested that America was seeking “total market access” to the UK’s health service after Brexit.
Johnson’s Government dismissed the claims at the time, insisting the NHS would always remain “off the table” in talks with the U.S.
Then International Trade Secretary Liz Truss also described the claims as a “conspiracy theory”, saying that Corbyn was “getting desperate and is out-and-out lying to the public about what these documents contain”.
However, fears of secret plans by the Conservative Government to sell-off the NHS have long been part of the national debate.
In 2016, former Conservative Prime Minister John Major warned that his party would seek to destroy the NHS, were it put in the hands of the leaders of the Brexit campaign.
“The NHS is about as safe with them as a pet hamster would be with a hungry python”, Major said of Johnson and his colleague Michael Gove.
( Adam Bienkov, 24.04.2023 )  ..  bylinetimes.com

Outsourcing NHS services means that private companies make money and profit from ill health.
Surely, that’s wrong, isn’t it?
( Rose Winfold )

The Tories Are Bleeding Out The NHS.
A few hours as a patient in A&E confirmed it to me – the Tories are bleeding out the NHS.
When I arrived, about 9pm, there were 16 ambulances waiting to offload their patients.
The waiting room was a vision of hell.
All the chairs were occupied.
Sick people leaned against the walls.
Many of the patients, from babies to the extremely aged, looked dangerously unwell.
And yet, for all of us, the wait went on and on.
I was seen by a doctor at 3am.
During those six hours, I witnessed two things that distressed me more than my own injury.
A man with what appeared to be cardiac symptoms collapsed on to the floor, possibly from a heart attack.
A toddler was screaming “it hurts, it hurts!” for almost three hours without a break.
It was devastating to hear.
When I was called by a nurse, halfway through my wait, I asked whether this was an especially busy night. “Oh no,” she told me, “this is quite a quiet one. Most nights recently have been worse.”
Nothing I saw was the fault of the staff, who were working at a frantic pace to manage an impossible load.
They looked exhausted.
What I witnessed were the extraordinary but now normal effects of 13 years of austerity.
Hospitals across the country appear to be approaching a tipping point.
A few hours as a patient in A&E confirmed it to me – the Tories are bleeding out the NHS.
( George Monbiot, 11.01.2023 )  ..  theguardian.com

No Politician From Any Political Party Other Than Conservative Succeeded In Referring Suppliers Onto The Covid Testing VIP Lane.
For over a year, Good Law Project have worked to uncover the identities of those treated as VIPs under contracts awarded as part of the Conservative Government’s £37billion pound Test and Trace programme.
Innova Medical landed Covid contracts valued at £4billion via the ‘VIP’ lane after its UK partner, a company trading under the name ‘Tried & Tested’ contacted PM Boris Johnson’s former advisor, Dominic Cummings.
Surescreen Diagnostics landed a £500million contract after MP Liam Fox referred the firm to Health Secretary Matt Hancock – Surescreen subsequently donated £20,000 to Liam Fox.
Matt Hancock assisted Ecolog International onto the ‘VIP’ lane after being contacted by Genix Healthcare – a company that has donated £156,000 to the Conservative Party.
Hancock’s Department paid Ecolog £38million in 2021, after the Government decided not to proceed with previously contracted Covid work.
Conservative Peer Lord Prior introduced a company called LumiraDx to Lord Bethell.
The firm was awarded Covid contracts worth over £45million.
Lord Bethell referred a company called OptiGene Ltd after being contacted by a Cabinet Office official – OptiGene were subsequently awarded a £322million contract, leading to a 1221% increase in profits to £41million.
Another Conservative Peer, Lord Lansley, introduced a company called Accora onto the ‘VIP’ lane.
Only Conservative Party Peers, MPs and donors appear to be named as referrers – no politician from any other political party succeeded in referring suppliers onto the Covid testing VIP lane.
Good Law Project will continue to investigate the latest ‘VIP’ lane scandal.
( Good Law Project, 21.12.2022 )  ..  goodlawproject.org