Tony Benn was right. #NHS has been reduced to a logo and a funding stream Ethos has been trashed Patient charging have been established Huge management and bureaucratic market structure imposed Standards falling Medical teams disempowered A&Es overstretched and dangerous

PPE Deals worth billions granted by the UK govt to its cronies, often without any competitive bidding, in secrecy, non-compliance with the govt's rules & without public accountability. It stinks and the govt shows no sign of giving an honest explanation. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

The public health consequences of this raise so many questions How many contacts of these *missing* 16,000 have been unknowingly spreading the virus? When will the Govt deliver a functional test & trace system? Why is Dido Harding still in her job? bbc.co.uk/news/uk-544125…

Whitty and Vallance admit today that lack of health services capacity (years of underfunding and closing nhs beds and services under PFI) is driving lock down policies. government mortgaged our children’s future with PFI and seems intent on destroying it and deepening poverty.

Wouldnt it be wonderful If politicians and Professor Chris Whitty said ‘we got Operation Moonshot Wrong’ We now understand its complexity so lets Stop mass testing and the 100 billion pound contracts and think it through . Matt Hancock @JeaneF1MSP Keir Starmer Jonathan Ashworth Nicola Sturgeon

Tom Jefferson: The UK turns to Witty, Vallance, and Van Tam for leadership: revolving doors? - The BMJ blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2017/12/06…

'We are overwhelmed with Covid patients...We are working with everything we've got.' Dr Rachel Clarke talks candidly about the impact of the second wave. She says the number of Covid patients are 'unimaginable' and more younger people are in ICU as a result of Covid.

'If you are thinking about partying over New Year's Eve, please just stay at home.' Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden urges people to stay at home as she tells @charlotteKawkns and ＠SeanFletcherTV about the adaptations hospitals have had to make to try and cope with the surge in cases.

This is harrowing. Harrowing This👇is from Johns Hopkins Medicine It means that in terms of the percentage of the population who have died of COVID-19, the UK is the 3rd worst affected country in the world The 3rd worst in the whole world My heart breaks for us all #coronavirus

Can anyone from @bbcnews explain why this is the lead story online - and not the fact that a High Court judge just ruled that the health secretary Matt Hancock broke the law in his awarding of multimillion pound PPE contracts? bbc.co.uk/news/uk-561276…

Dear The Guardian why no reports/ scrutiny of takeover of 48 GP practices in London by Operose subsidiary of US corp Centene; chicanery; role of NHS England ; how a handful of greedy GPs plus wives are profiting from public funds at expense of patient care Deborah Cohen Margaret McCartney

During David Cameron's UK Prime Minsitership a senior civil servant became a director of Greensill whilst simultaneously in charge of billions of pounds worth of government contracts. Later Cameron became a director. How deep is UK political corruption? news.sky.com/story/greensil…

Govt under pressure to back Biden’s global corporation tax plan. The proposed minimum tax rate is not perfect but better that what we have. Germany, France, Canada, Italy and Japan support it but not the UK, the home of a global tax abuse industry. theguardian.com/politics/2021/…

Yes Professor Azeem Majeed and much of the new NHS money went via PFI to shareholders, equity investors bankers and service operators and is still flowing to them. That’s a key reason for lack of capacity in our nhs -bed and service closures and the great sell off. Media don’t discuss

Affluenza

Labour's plans to use private finance to pay for infrastructure will cost more than using public funding in the long run, and could lead to toll roads and extra charges for the public, experts have warned. My story in The i Paper⬇️🧵 inews.co.uk/news/labours-p…

Labour’s proposals bear similarities to Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts that were expanded under Tony Blair’s premiership and have led to inflated repayment costs.