Our lazy and incompetent media doing the work of a nasty and vicious government. Looking at the graphs, most of the hospitals are based in the South of the country. With the closure of Leeds or Newcastle, would leave the North of the country one unit for patients and parents to go to.
This week, in the course of writing an article for the Campaign Group Open Democracy, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to paediatric surgeons at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI), the object of much attention after its children’s cardiac surgery unit was closed late last week.
I’ve also looked into the facts behind the claim that the unit was closed because its mortality rate was ‘double the national average’ – or to be more precise, to look into them as far as is possible given that the claims were supposedly based on statistics that are neither published nor even finished.
The fact that the unit now looks set to be reopened doesn’t remove the concerns about the original decisions were reached. Nor does it undo the damage that has been done by the decision and what has been said and published around it. As the BBC News site observed yesterday, “
View original post 2,456 more words
A universal welfare state is the essential bedrock of a civilised country. A civilised country ensures that no one goes without healthcare because they can’t afford it, no one is treated as if worthless because they cannot work, and that anyone who loses their job needn’t fear destitution for themselves or for their family if they don’t find another job instantly. A civilised country ensures that no one needs to work when they are too young or too old or too disabled or too ill. This is not a system that can be replaced by random acts of charity: 
patricktsudlow 