Secular Talk on Poor Americans Now Using Pet Antibiotics

Beastrabban\'s Weblog

This is a story from another side of the Pond, but it’s relevant because it shows the kind of horrific medical system that the Blairites and the Tories are introducing over here through the destruction of the NHS. In this piece from the atheist/ secularist news channel, Secular Talk, Kyle Kulinski comments on a story in Raw Story from a report from a respected medical journal, The Journal of Antibiotics. A survey was done of 400 people in Houston, Texas, asking them how they obtained their antibiotics. These were people, who needed the drug, not those who did not. Kulinski is very clear to dispel this possible misunderstanding, as the overprescription of antibiotics is a separate issue. It’s responsible for the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria, which is a serious threat to health around the world.

This is about people, who genuinely need the drug. It investigated how people…

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NHS Privatisation: Cuts to My Local Health Centre

The current

Beastrabban\'s Weblog

Visiting our local health centre the other day, my parents, along with the other local people enrolled there, were handed a letter, explaining that due to funding cuts the health centre was having to cut back on services. It also advised its patients that if they wanted to raise their concerns about the restriction in their service they could contact:-

1. NHS England at FAO Linda Prosser, Director of Assurance and Delivery, NHS England South West (BNSSG), 4th floor Plaza, Marlborough Street, Bristol BS1 3NX
2. your local MP who is Karin Smyth at the House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA
3. Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, via his website http://www.jeremyhunt.org

Unfortunately, this is happening to the NHS and GPs’ services all the country. It is no accident, and it is certainly not the fault of the many dedicated doctors, nurses and other health professionals working in…

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Health Provision before the NHS

Beastrabban\'s Weblog

I’ve been having a debate here with a critic, who objected to my description of Nye Bevan as the architect of the NHS. His contention appears to be that there was no private healthcare in Britain even before the establishment of the NHS, and that no-one really suffered through the charges that were made for some essentially services, as the poor were already treated free of charge on the Poor Law. I’ve made it very plain to this critic that I believe he has a very rosy view of healthcare before the NHS.

My mother was told by one of her friends, a staunch Tory, that her father was a pharmacist, who also voted Tory. However, at the 1945 election, he called his family together to say that he was voting Labour, because the NHS was needed. He was tired of having to supply drugs on credit, because the working…

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Nye Bevan on Women Losing Out with Private Healthcare

Beastrabban\'s Weblog

A few days ago I put up this meme, about the way the Republicans will force American women to refight all their grandmothers’ battles if they get in again. In my opinion, the meme probably refers specifically to abortion as the issue that most widely and obviously affects women’s health and legal freedom.

But it also covers a whole plethora of other areas and issues. The Republicans recently defunded Planned Parenthood, on the spurious ground that they were providing abortions and selling the body parts for science. In fact, only three per cent of the Planned Parenthood’s activities were abortions. The majority of them were general family planning and gynaecological/ women’s health advice and procedures, given to poor women, who clearly fell at least partly outside private medical care.

As for the bodies of the aborted children, they were not sold. They were donated for scientific research, and the fees…

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Secular Talk on Donald Trump’s Confused Position on Healthcare

Beastrabban\'s Weblog

This is an interesting piece. Kyle Kulinski takes apart The Donald’s weird and confused answer on the question of healthcare in the Republican presidential debates. The moderator notes that Trump has said that he wants to repeal Obamacare, and opposes the introduction of universal healthcare, because it would lead to massive tax rises across America. So she asks the obvious question: What would he replace it with?

At which point, Trump starts humming and ha-ing, stating that there are a lots of examples of what could be done. He would repeal Obamacare, but make sure everyone was covered. He would introduce greater competition, and go back to free enterprise. He states he would repeal the arbitrary red line about insurance, and then criticises the insurance companies for pushing up the cost of healthcare to unaffordable levels, and profiting from it. He then states that the costs would come down if…

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