NHS cuts

The media seem to love scaremongering and sensationalising news as they have done regarding government cuts and the loss of "front line services".

It would be very satisfying if they picked up on and reported the following actual waste of public money.

Most normal people know that enormous savings are to be made in public services such as the NHS that would avoid the need to reduce front line staff.

I have first hand experience recently of how non-added value procedures cost us, the public, money.

Having experienced a problem with one of my eyes I used the NHS Direct via the Internet to diagnose the problem and was instructed to go directly to Accident and Emergency. Believing this to be a little dramatic I phoned NHS Direct and was given, in no uncertain terms, the same advice.

Immediately I went to the Royal Eye Infirmary ( on NHS advice ) and waited to see triage nurse and this is where the waste of our money started. I was told that I was not an emergency and "no" I could not make an appointment to be seen that day but should go to my usual opticians, which I duly did.

The optician was not surprised, but a little angry, that I, like others before me, had been referred by the Eye Infirmary.

Subsequently, after a full check I was told I would need another test and that the optician would write to my GP for him to arrange a check at the Royal Eye Infirmary from whence I had just come!

So to summarise the unnecessary steps in this ridiculous process the following is where increased costs have been met by you and I.

1     Full eye test at private optician.
2     Letter from optician to GP
3     Contact from GP to Sentinel Healthcare ( to arrange appointment )
4     Phone call to me from Sentinel to discuss appointment.
5     Letter from Eye Infirmary to me confirming appointment.
6     Phone call from Eye Infirmary to remind me of appointment ( yet to happen)
It is an absolute disgrace that we are wasting public monies just because the establishment has procedures which have absolutely no purpose. These people are there to serve the public, not to waste their hard-earned cash.
Please send a link to this Blog to any MP's that you know and lets shake the system up a little.

More PUBLIC SERVANT strikes planned

Here we go again. Yet minority another group of public servants holding the taxpayers to ransom because they have the power ( but absolutely not the right ) to do so.

A 'day of action' on Thursday has been planned by the University and College Union (UCU). Members are angry at the plans to raise retirement age, increase contributions and closure of their final salary scheme.

Where have these "academics" been living for the last 10 years. MILLIONS of private sector workers have had to put up with these changes and have not been able to disrupt the country because they are not in unions, or their employers do not recognise unions. These millions who have suffered are the ones paying the salaries and a large percentage of the pensions that these academics enjoy.

Do they really expect 20 million people to put their hands in their pockets and pay them more out of sympathy? We really can not afford to have our earnings milked anymore by these minority groups. 

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said "University staff really value their pension rights and have made their views of the detrimental changes crystal clear" .

What the hell does she think the rest of us feel about having to pay more for our pensions, having them reduced and so having to work longer?

It is now a fact that pensions in the PUBLIC SECTOR are greater than those in the PRIVATE SECTOR.

Come on, you SILENT MAJORITY for your own sakes speak up now. Make your feelings known and tell these idiots that they can not expect us to fund them any more.

Other unions, including the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, are preparing to ballot members on possible strike action over pensions.

IF WE DON'T MAKE OUR VIEWS CLEAR THEY WILL TAKE US ALL FOR A RIDE.

Write to your MP's, tweet on twitter, comment on BLOGS, write to your local press. Do not sit at home and think "it doesn't really affect me". Of course it does and is part of the reason we are less well of than before and our standard of living will go down at the expense of those who are paid to serve the public.

I mentioned in my last blog the idea that there might be "food riots". This latest type of selfishness is much more likely to result in civil unrest than the cost of food increasing