Idiocy twined with sanity

Norman Lamb has come up with some idiotic suggestions.

The first one is that Pubs should pay for treatment if they keep sending customers to A&E. Now, does anyone have half a brain out there and see the problem with this? Anyone?.....

.....Yes, that's right Mr. 1/10th of a brain. If pubs are going to be charged for this they wont send people who need treatment and they will at best, need more treatment than they otherwise would have and at worst die.


Norman has also suggested that people who are violent and abusive to NHS staff should have to pay for their treatment rather than getting it entirely free. Well fuck me sideways, if I'd known that by being sweary and violent I wouldn't have to stump up money towards the NHS from my wages I would have started being so years ago. The point being, Norman "shit for brains" Lamb, is that we already pay for the treatment that we receive. The NHS is not free, we just pay ahead from our taxes. So, unless what Norman really wants to do is withhold treatment from those who have never paid any taxes, (which will tend to be the sweary violent ones in A&E so maybe he has a point), he can sod off.

However, the above aside he does have a very good point to make;

"In today's highly centralised NHS there is a real 'democratic deficit', with too many decisions made in Whitehall."

They are also suggesting having a local health tax with a corresponding national reduction in income tax. Great, brilliant idea, give power to areas small enough to have some hope of providing a good service but this sounds too sane to be true. Know why? 'Cause it is:

"The Lib Dems are also proposing to create a "patient's contract" which will set down the entitlement of all patients, regardless of where they live."

What is the point of giving control to local areas with one hand and then taking it away completely with the other? The problem is that the NHS is a behemoth, funded inefficiently and too centrally controlled. Normans proposals entail breaking it up giving local control and then sticking it back together under central control. Why bother?