tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post2357435586795699497..comments2024-03-04T17:54:32.559+00:00Comments on Iain Dale's Diary: Labour's Cancer Scare Exposed As LiesIain Dalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03270146219458384372noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-40294238350320953012010-04-28T18:07:01.874+01:002010-04-28T18:07:01.874+01:00Just heard from a friend, who has a sister who has...Just heard from a friend, who has a sister who has just died. Cause of death on the death certificate was smoking. Odd because she never smoked in her life.<br /><br />Are the medical profession under orders to fudge the figures I wonder?<br /><br />Took a lot of complaining to have this removed from the certificate.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12073019640077080501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-47788681704404675532010-04-28T11:43:59.749+01:002010-04-28T11:43:59.749+01:00But why oh why oh why oh why has DC not been hamme...But why oh why oh why oh why has DC not been hammering on stuff like this. He just smiles and takes it on the chin. REBUTTALS.<br /><br />Hopefully he will realise this before Thursday.OldSlaughterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04807170326475262427noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-43267881394374773062010-04-28T09:40:02.916+01:002010-04-28T09:40:02.916+01:00rather than 'but i don't have time' th...rather than 'but i don't have time' the cry should be 'why after all the billions poured into the nhs over the last decade are 5 year survival rates so poor compared to other comparable developed countries'?davidchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15928205954476712575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-30390965237034577852010-04-28T09:35:00.355+01:002010-04-28T09:35:00.355+01:00This is largely a queuing theory issue in my opini...This is largely a queuing theory issue in my opinion<br />The flow of patients is likely to be fairly constant except in A&E at weekends; GP surgeries in the winter; perhaps after a health scare story.<br />The following is a considerable simplification of QT.<br />With a constant flow of patients then all can be seen in reasonable time if the medical staff are occupied for only 80% of their time. If they are 100% occupied , as I am sure they are, then queues develop. To see most patients immediately then the “occupied” status figure falls to 50% - that is 100% overstaffed. Appointments are intended to even out the queue over time to avoid that.<br />Many years ago the Post Office did queuing theory based research. Before that different counters may have been devoted to a specific function – say car tax – or else each counter attracted its own queue. Banks were the same. Should you be in a queue where people in front were paying in bags of cash, or had a difficult transaction then you could be seriously held up whilst other queues were being quickly processed.<br />I think the NHS targets are perhaps a variation of this. Patient choice also has a significant effect. We have all sat in a GP surgery where most patients opt for a particularly favoured GP. The people waiting for him/her wait rather longer than the rest.<br />The Post Office, and then the banks, now the railway ticket offices, solved the issue by creating a single queue with several service points serving that queue (cashier number 4) , although big queues will still develop at lunchtimes when many more customers appear.<br />Yes I know that banks and post offices are not comparable to the NHS with its many specialisms but I do think that the whole issue has been handled in a cack handed way to satisfy political dogma.Medics look not to have been consulted in any meaningful way.bewickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02808667730361613052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-26625010010055446872010-04-28T09:33:22.555+01:002010-04-28T09:33:22.555+01:00Will, I think you'll find that many GPs were q...Will, I think you'll find that many GPs were quite happy to accept the £100K+ salaries they now enjoy as the heavy burden of accepting government diktat!<br /><br />Anyway, in the NHS system, GPs have always played the role of initial rationer, determining who gets what access - a system that has never really worked well, since, foolishly, many GPs have tried to put their patient's welfare above that of the penny-watching accountants in the hospitals.<br /><br />Rationing is self-evidently going to have to get tighter, especially with novel treatments and we are going to see far more pressure on the NICE system from patient anger. I seriously doubt that Tory ministers will be any better at facing this down than were Labour ones, so the current reality, that novel expensive treatments will force out basic care, will continue and flourish.<br /><br />The drug companies will be rubbing their hands in anticipation!DespairingLiberalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02903904463236135611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-82000795809087903682010-04-28T09:27:59.159+01:002010-04-28T09:27:59.159+01:00In the post below, when someone critiques your res...In the post below, when someone critiques your response to the ad, you say "read the next post dick" (sic). Yet this post does not contradict the claim made in the ad. It basically just says that it doesn't matter or it isn't relevant or an incorrect policy. That's different.DespairingLiberalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02903904463236135611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-37354698402924470822010-04-28T09:08:35.235+01:002010-04-28T09:08:35.235+01:00You've missed the big story. It's that GP...You've missed the big story. It's that GPs' status as 'professionals' is now so shriveled that they feel they have to be anonymous when making these sort of observations.<br /><br />The cancer referral stuff is just deckchair rearrangement. The real tradgedy is that a cynical government successfully used a vast dollop of taxpayers' money to manipulate a formerly respected profession into a bunch of whipped curs. GPs have abandoned their patients in the pursuit of a game-show points system, and rightly despise both themselves and their employers for the results.Will Deanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15515078919433985452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-35670574544557482382010-04-28T09:03:23.978+01:002010-04-28T09:03:23.978+01:00A related pledge is that the results of all "...A related pledge is that the results of all "cancer" tests will be back within a week. Even if you look at the simplest of these tests, a PSA blood test screening for prostatic cancer, the logistics of ensuring that every, not just 90%, result is back within a week are challenging. Meeting that pledge will distort the priorities of the service with no benefit to patients. When the investigation is a more complicated one, using very expensive kit, the effects of a mandatory 1 week turn round time will be even more deleterious to the service as a whole.<br /><br />What worries me is that the two medical royal colleges most involved in diagnosis, The Royal College of pathologists and the Royal College of Radiologists, have been silent on the consequences that would arise from the mandatory implementation of this pledge.John Woolmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14103272578479980723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-59824869515054277932010-04-28T09:03:23.979+01:002010-04-28T09:03:23.979+01:00It's very simple. The whole technique behind ...It's very simple. The whole technique behind the whole Blair Brown 'project' has been been spin aka lies. Everything, but everything they say should be taken with a very large pinch of salt. Somehow people jhave to be made to understand that New labour has nothing whatever to do with better governance but all to do with maintaining in power and enriching the likes of mandleson and Blair and providing highly paid 'jobs' for unemployables like Cooper and balls. It's just a deceit machine. And although Brown has been shown to be a liar too, I think it is genuinely pathological. he just can't help himself. Anyway he's just useless and deluded.Lolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-67370045155658460882010-04-28T07:52:45.360+01:002010-04-28T07:52:45.360+01:00Could your GP correspondent provide figures on wha...Could your GP correspondent provide figures on what percentage of cancer diagnoses arise from initial referral for something else? This was true in my own case six years ago. I was on a long waiting list to see a consultant (thanks Labour) and, because I was in discomfort, chose to see the consultant privately to speed things up. Whilst undergoing treatment for something believed to be non-malignant, a biopsy revealed cancer. When a GP suspects cancer, no-one hangs about and patients are referred quickly. No target is needed. The problem is how long it takes to see a consultant when cancer is not initially suspected but is nonetheless there.Carohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04977450933277241692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-88521633544890195862010-04-28T07:23:54.713+01:002010-04-28T07:23:54.713+01:00We live in France. My wife had a positive result t...We live in France. My wife had a positive result to a standard 'poo test' and received a letter by return of post to see her doctor which she duly did on the same day. The doctor arranged for an appointment the following day with a consultant who arranged for a coloscopie examination. He also made an arrangement for her to see the anaesthetist while she was at the clinic. Less than 2 hours after her arrival at the clinic she left with a date for the examination to be carried out under full operating theatre conditions a couple of days later.<br /><br />The examination revealed a polyp and a date for its removal was made within hours of finding it. A couple of days later the polyp was removed at the same clinic and sent for further examination. However, the surgeon was clear that he had removed the polyp and surrounding tissue and could see no further evidence to be concerned about. All this took less than a week!<br /><br />When the results of the tests on the removed polyp came back, they showed the polyp to be malignant. So, although they were content that there no visible evidence of cancer remained, a 6 month course of chemotherapy was recommended as 'preventive' measure. Having completed the course she was re-examined by coloscopie and found to be 100% clear.<br /><br />This entire event was conducted with speed and efficiency and the word 'wait' or 'waiting' or 'waiting list' or 'government target' were never mentioned or even hinted at. There was never any doubt that my wife was going to be given the best of treatment and without delay.<br /><br />One of the contributors to the lack of any delay was the way which examination results are managed. The results of all X-rays, scans, ultrasound examinations, blood tests and the like are produced and given to the patient immediately afterwards. There is no waiting while the results are sent to whoever commissioned them. The patient takes the results back themselves. The patient is trusted to hand-carry the results. This way a lot of the delays incurred just don't happen.<br /><br />Anyway, since France has an almost identical population to the UK, I can't help wondering quite why the UK seems to have so many problems with the political football that is the NHS whilst here things seem to work so much better, quickly and without all the agonising and hand-wringing that accompanies just about anything to do with the NHS.<br /><br />Time for a serious re-think about how the NHS works particularly quite why the delays which seem to be built-in to the way things are done. It may just be that it's not money, God knows the NHS gets enough of that. It may just be that a basic review of the time-honoured system that keeps that patient at arm's length from the doctor would reveal the real cause of the emotive delays that give rise to so many problems.50 Calibrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04949487484030980699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-72913011087021961352010-04-28T01:01:15.388+01:002010-04-28T01:01:15.388+01:00Thanks for this very interesting item, which I see...Thanks for this very interesting item, which I see comes with links so that we can inform ourselves about the ins and outs of this complex topic. <br /><br />I used to work for the Royal College of Radiologists [which includes the radiotherapists] so I know how emotive and how deceptive arguments about delays in diagnosis and treatment can be. <br /><br />If your cancer, which is several years old by the time it is diagnosed, has already spread then it is likely to kill you [it won't if you die of something else first]; if it hasn't, then it is unlikely to spread while you wait for diagnosis and treatment and surgery + radio- + chemo-therapy has good chance of killing it first.rob's unclehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03001074396029714388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-72817683522277001912010-04-27T23:41:57.813+01:002010-04-27T23:41:57.813+01:00This is all very well, but whether you measure out...This is all very well, but whether you measure outcomes or performance against targets, you are still trying to control a massive organisation from the centre. Until the NHS is broken up and reformed, people will go on dying unnecessarily, whether the NHS measures itself against a 2 week waiting target or measures itself for cancer death rates.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-72450813401480607892010-04-27T23:26:06.133+01:002010-04-27T23:26:06.133+01:00Despicable lies from the LDs and from Labour. Per...Despicable lies from the LDs and from Labour. Perfect coalition partners.<br /><br />Meantime over on the ever reliable WUWT it seems Austrilias labour PM has junked his carbon trading election manifesto committment.<br />http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/04/27/australia-dumps-carbon-trading-scheme/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-27917488179572600852010-04-27T23:21:11.382+01:002010-04-27T23:21:11.382+01:00I think this is the issue that makes me angiest of...I think this is the issue that makes me angiest of any in this election. I did a little personal story to explain why here:<br /><br />http://theviewfromcullingworth.blogspot.com/2010/04/cancer-how-two-week-target-is-nonsense.htmlSimon Cookehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12586896340482296341noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-10618091773936323552010-04-27T23:06:49.184+01:002010-04-27T23:06:49.184+01:00I'm here. I was merely asking a question - and...I'm here. I was merely asking a question - and I'm really not worth wasting time over.Noelinhohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09432161217967943022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-32319524125758807042010-04-27T22:42:50.951+01:002010-04-27T22:42:50.951+01:00Bang on. I just wish this could be wrapped up into...Bang on. I just wish this could be wrapped up into an equally populist counter-message to rebut Labour's scare tactics.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-68954970923140958202010-04-27T22:40:55.376+01:002010-04-27T22:40:55.376+01:00I was out with a doctor this evening. He said that...I was out with a doctor this evening. He said that people in the NHS don't like targets much so Gordon will have lost another bunch of votes as a result of the PPB. <br /><br />Turning to the promise, he said that it's all very well, but what will they fail to deliver as a result. He didn't think that it would improve outcomes.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18020757579092579521noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-63142581150046912132010-04-27T22:40:55.377+01:002010-04-27T22:40:55.377+01:00Iain, just thought you'd like to know about Jo...Iain, just thought you'd like to know about Jonathan Bartley who ambushed David Cameron earlier today with his disabled son. The BBC are trying to portray him as a "angry parent" but Bartley is the co-director of a liberal Christian think tank called Ekklesia. He's certainly no ordinary passerby. He's appeared on a number of Radio 4 discussion programmes such as "The Moral Maze", so he must be known to the BBC so their news items are disingenuous.<br /><br />He's also written for the Guardian, Independent and The New Statesman. In his latest article on Ekklesia's website, Bartley hypes up the LibDems as the "party of hope".<br /><br />It looks so much like it was a politically motivated ambush.angry and despondenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00011591272679682211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6214838.post-21708028831291073182010-04-27T22:35:09.704+01:002010-04-27T22:35:09.704+01:00Anyone know where 'Noelinho' went to?...Anyone know where 'Noelinho' went to?...Walsingham's Ghosthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05813400475845295850noreply@blogger.com