Catherine is an accountant. We are delighted that she joined us as a paid subscriber. Her rationale for joining us that she has always wondered where all the NHS money went. So did we and bit by bit we are trying to piece the story together. As we wrote it’s not easy. Readers’ comments are a great help and if anyone spots a funny sounding body lurking in the bowels of the NHS, please do alert us.
So far the most striking aspect are the discrepancies in the various estimates of budgets and the sanitised versions of the wiring diagram presented to Parliament.
As we mentioned before, we are slowly building a “who does what” table, and the amount of duplication is already evident. However rest easy: 1.8 of your GPs (well let’s round it to two), have one financier looking after them.
Perhaps even more alarming is the news this morning that HM Chancellor wants to plough more cash into the sinkhole - boxed ticked for the “winter pressures”: let’s move on over the frozen bodies of a few pensioners, like Napoleon at the Berezina crossing. Except that HM Treasury does not have Dutch pontonniers to save them, only taxpayers and pensioners to fleece.
Later on we are putting out a good news story. Yes, we have found one and by sheer chance it’s a bottom up story. Well perhaps not by chance.
Keep following the story folks as we descend further into the bowels of the sinkhole and we try and shine our feeble lights around the nooks and crannies.
Last point. The argument that the current government has no choice because it inherited a disaster from the previous one does not wash. For example, when Johnson and Hancock were busy throwing away 37 billion on useless test, test, test where was the opposition?
This post was written by a pensioner, old geezer and likely target for fleecing but not freezing.
Hi Pauline, thank you for query. The figures relate to whole time equivalents (WTEs) in England. The BMA gives a slightly lower estimate: "As of April 2024, there are 27,606 fully qualified full time equivalent GPs” but it makes no real difference. Your daughters can sleep well knowing that they are well looked after. We are delighted to hear that we keep you sane, in a strange world.
Best, Tom.
If you two old geezers are looking for some warmth this coming winter, maybe you should put one of these on your list to Santa... or family/friends...
https://its.co.uk/workwear-ppe/heated-clothing/
Our mid-forties son spends a lot of time outside in the freezing cold. We bought him a heated hoodie jacket for his birthday expecting an oohh Daad! response. We were very surprised to get warm comments back... it's been well used. Needs a charger/battery plus the jacket.