Summary:
“Home care is currently in trouble with local authorities having cut their funding.”
NO! NO! NO! YOUR GOVERNMENT HAS CUT FUNDING TO LOCAL AUTHORITIES!
“… social care is means tested and supplied by the local authority, whose grants, throughout the recent period of austerity have been cut.”
BY YOUR GOVERNMENT!
“As to the blame game, it simply won’t get us anywhere.”
YES IT WILL – YOUR GOVERNMENT’S AUSTERITY POLICY GOT US HERE! YOUR GOVERNMENT HAS CHOSEN TO STARVE THE NHS TO FEED HS2 FOR EXAMPLE. IT HAS INSISTED ON TARGETS THAT CANNOT BE MET BY A DEFUNDED NHS AND THEN FINES HOSPITALS FOR NOT REACHING THEM!
(And be honest, if it was Labour in power YOU would be blaming Corbyn!)
“Britain spends less as a share of its GDP on health care than most other rich countries. If taxpayers want that to change they will have to pay for it. And yes that might mean patients, diverted from expensive systems of care into cheaper ones.”
NO! IT CAN SPEND MORE ON THE NHS – IT WAS A CHOICE OF YOUR GOVERNMENT TO SPEND LESS AND UNDERFUND HEALTH CARE COMPARED TO OTHER COUNTRIEs AND TO SPEND MORE ON WASTEFUL VANITY PROJECTS. THIS IS A RICH FIRST-WORLD COUNTRY NOT A POOR THIRD WORLD ONE?
“As for surgeries, why can’t doctors deal with some patients by e-mail? it would mean they could devote more time to the seriously ill when they come in. Some people already pay for prescriptions, as they do for dental health, so is the answer for some other services to be charged for? ”
OWL CAN BARELY REPLY. YOU KNOW IMMEDIATELY THAT THIS MAN HAS PRIVATE HEALTH CARE! CAN YOU IMAGINE PEOPLE DESCRIBING THEIR SYMPTOMS BY EMAIL! AND HOW MUCH EMAIL DOCTORS WOULD HAVE TO PLOUGH THROUGH! AND WHAT IF THE PATIENT THINKS THE PROBLEM HAS TO GO TO EMAIL AND IT TURNS OUT TO BE AN EMERGENCY! OR WHAT IF EMAIL GOES DOWN OR YOU HAVE NO COMPUTER? WHAT ABOUT SECURITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY?
“I have an online booking system for my surgery but my doctor tells me only a quarter of people turn up”
SO DOESN’T THAT MEAN EITHER IT IS NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE OR EVEN THAT THERE IS MORE SPACE FOR THOSE WHO DO TURN UP ON THE DAY!
And finally:
“These are only ideas, and for many they will feel like a bitter pill to swallow.”
INDEED A BITTER PILL BUT, FORTUNATELY WE DON’T HAVE TO SWALLOW IT … WE CAN FIGHT BACK.
But it’s useful to see Mr Swire’s total toeing of his party’s line. We do know where we stand with him and his party – and for the majority it is NOT shoulder to shoulder but eyeball to eyeball.
East Devon Watch 
To be honest, our Hugo’s comments beggar belief. I would like to think he was just utterly naive, but much more likely he is still looking to butter up to the grandees in his party in the hope of another lucrative ministerial job at some point in the future. I cannot see any other explanations for this complete lack of understanding of how the system works.
And I am not sure which explanation is worse – an MP who cannot be bothered to find out what the real issues are and makes stupid, fallacious arguments to support his ignorant position – or an MP who deliberately twists the truth in order to justify his own party’s policies regardless of the consequences? Certainly neither describes the sort of person I would like as my MP.
The Conservative Party has already stated in their election manifesto that the NHS is underfunded by £8bn, though former MP David Law’s has said in his book that Simon Stevens, CEO of NHS England originally said that the NHS needed £15bn-£16bn extra. Secrecy and underhand tactics again. But either way, they know it is underfunded – so Hugo saying the opposite makes no sense at all.
As for suggesting that doctors deal with patients by email, how stupid an idea is this? Whilst it might work in principle for minor issues that do not require a face-to-face examination – in the same way that seeing a private doctors for a prescription by video on your mobile phone might work (assuming of course that you are not worried about an email or video approach missing the symptoms of something much more major that would have been spotted immediately in a face-to-face consultation), the BIG difference is that these mobile services charge private-sector fees for the consultation, for any prescriptions and for the drugs themselves, whereas the NHS is free and only a face-to-face consultation will avoid misuse of the system.
I guess this is the making of a joke (of sorts):
Q: What do you call a Conservative MP who twists the truth in order to justify his own party’s policies regardless of the consequences?
A: A Conservative MP.
(OK – not much of a joke, but it certainly has the ring of truth about it – though I doubt any Conservative MP particularly Our Hugo would recognise that truth. See also the promise of £350m per week for the NHS from Boris Johnston (lying Tory MP), or the proposal make all schools Academy Schools (which was really just privatisation under a different name – introduced without any debate or consultation) from Michael Gove (lying Tory MP), or …)
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