As the epidemic of excessive ambulance waits at Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments hits the headlines, BBC News has announced that 76,000 patients were forced to wait more than thirty minutes in ambulances outside A&Es – one in eight of the total.
The situation has become so bad that even a hospital Trust chief executive has tweeted about the ‘fleet’ of ambulances stuck outside his A&E:
This phenomenon inevitably impacts on ambulance waiting times, putting patients at risk.
Now whistleblowers at a Sutton’s St Helier hospital have told the SKWAWKBOX that on Tuesday night the number of people waiting at the same time for an ambulance reached two hundred.
The Trust has not been reachable for comment.
If the figure is correct, it paints a bleak picture for those in need of help across the country.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Hunt has both denied and admitted that the NHS is in crisis.
Have similar information about your Trust? Email ambulancewaits@outlook.com.
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Pressure at QA Hospital as NHS hospitals nationwide face problems
Doctors and nurses are taking to social media sites to apologise to patients for the state of their departments with one described as in ‘third world conditions’ while others are calling for more help from the government.
In Portsmouth, the situation is no different with Queen Alexandra Hospital struggling under the pressure that comes with winter months. The Cosham site has seen ambulances waiting five hours to hand over patients to the emergency department and desperate pleas from management for additional staff to go into work.
Read more at: https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/health/pressure-at-qa-hospital-as-nhs-hospitals-nationwide-face-problems-1-8315317
Bit like Local Authorities have sold off most of the road gritters over the years. Some even sold them all. No chance getting an Ambulance then either except that the calibre of our NHS staff would walk with the kit to save a patience. Pity Management could not give the same respect.
We need to stop telling them what they already know, stop waiting sometimes weeks for an ‘Apology’ that changes nothing while the whole thing escalates. It’s time to do something about it. Find a class action lawyer take them to court and crowd fund it. Petitions are doing nothing we have to get 100,000 signatures before they’ll deign to look at it let alone discuss it. When you have to fight your government to stop them hurting you, you can only assume it is the agenda
The Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament
Prepared pursuant to the Resolution of the House of 19 July 1995
I. Purpose of the Code
1. The purpose of this Code of Conduct is to assist all Members in the discharge of their obligations to the House, their constituents and the public at large by:
(a) establishing the standards and principles of conduct expected of all Members in undertaking their duties;
(b) setting the rules of conduct which underpin these standards and principles and to which all Members must adhere; and in so doing
(c) ensuring public confidence in the standards expected of all Members and in the commitment of the House to upholding these rules.
II. Scope of the Code
2. The Code applies to Members in all aspects of their public life. It does not seek to regulate what Members do in their purely private and personal lives.
3. The obligations set out in this Code are complementary to those which apply to all Members by virtue of the procedural and other rules of the House and the rulings of the Chair, and to those which apply to Members falling within the scope of the Ministerial Code.
III. Duties of Members
4. By virtue of the oath, or affirmation, of allegiance taken by all Members when they are elected to the House, Members have a duty to be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen, her heirs and successors, according to law.
5. Members have a duty to uphold the law, including the general law against discrimination.
6. Members have a general duty to act in the interests of the nation as a whole; and a special duty to their constituents.
7. Members should act on all occasions in accordance with the public trust placed in them. They should always behave with probity and integrity, including in their use of public resources.
IV. General Principles of Conduct
8. In carrying out their parliamentary and public duties, Members will be expected to observe the following general principles of conduct identified by the Committee on Standards in Public Life in its First Report as applying to holders of public office.[1] These principles will be taken into account when considering the investigation and determination of any allegations of breaches of the rules of conduct in Part V of the Code.
“Selflessness
Holders of public office should take decisions solely in terms of the public interest. They should not do so in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends.
Integrity
Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might influence them in the performance of their official duties.
Objectivity
In carrying out public business, including making public appointments, awarding contracts, or recommending individuals for rewards and benefits, holders of public office should make choices on merit.
Accountability
Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.
Openness
Holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions that they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider public interest clearly demands.
Honesty
Holders of public office have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest.
Leadership
Holders of public office should promote and support these principles by leadership and example.”
V. Rules of Conduct
9. Members are expected to observe the following rules and associated Resolutions of the House.
10. Members shall base their conduct on a consideration of the public interest, avoid conflict between personal interest and the public interest and resolve any conflict between the two, at once, and in favour of the public interest.
11. No Member shall act as a paid advocate in any proceeding of the House.[2]
12. The acceptance by a Member of a bribe to influence his or her conduct as a Member, including any fee, compensation or reward in connection with the promotion of, or opposition to, any Bill, Motion, or other matter submitted, or intended to be submitted to the House, or to any Committee of the House, is contrary to the law of Parliament.[3]
13. Members shall fulfil conscientiously the requirements of the House in respect of the registration of interests in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. They shall always be open and frank in drawing attention to any relevant interest in any proceeding of the House or its Committees, and in any communications with Ministers, Members, public officials or public office holders.[4]
14. Information which Members receive in confidence in the course of their parliamentary duties should be used only in connection with those duties. Such information must never be used for the purpose of financial gain.
15. Members are personally responsible and accountable for ensuring that their use of any expenses, allowances, facilities and services provided from the public purse is in accordance with the rules laid down on these matters. Members shall ensure that their use of public resources is always in support of their parliamentary duties. It should not confer any undue personal or financial benefit on themselves or anyone else, or confer undue advantage on a political organisation.
16. Members shall never undertake any action which would cause significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole, or of its Members generally.
VI. Upholding the Code
17. The application of this Code shall be a matter for the House of Commons, and particularly for the Committee on Standards and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards acting in accordance with Standing Orders Nos 149 and 150 respectively.
18. The Commissioner may investigate a specific matter relating to a Member’s adherence to the rules of conduct under the Code. Members shall cooperate, at all stages, with any such investigation by or under the authority of the House. No Member shall lobby a member of the Committee in a manner calculated or intended to influence its consideration of an alleged breach of this Code.
19. The Committee will consider any report from the Commissioner to it and report its conclusions and recommendations to the House. The House may impose a sanction on the Member where it considers it necessary. Backhttps://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmcode/1076/107602.htm#a3
https://beta.parliament.uk/searchq=voters+rights+holding+government+to+account
I believe that something is needed to bring these politicians to account, the Tories denied they were privatising the NHS when they clearly were.
The so called clever bit though is that they can claim parliament voted for the legislation which relieved Hunt of all responsibility for the privatisation process that is ongoing.
The current situation is that the CCGs are outsourcing all the NHS contracts by law. So that all services will end up in the private sector except those that the private sector doesn’t want.
We can thank those nice Libdems for supporting these Tories in the destruction of the NHS.
Whilst we are all distracted by the stupid EU debate the Tories are busy selling the ground from beneath our feet.
The EU is a total distraction, we have Neo-Liberal politicians in Europe with exactly the same agenda as these Neo-Liberal Tories and we fiddle whilst Rome burns. Because people are drawn in by the corrupt media who are leading the debate.
Getting rid of the lying Tories is and should be every bodies major priority, everything else is irrelevant.
When the BBC is looking for someone with experience and knowledge to interview over the crisis in the NHS could they please not go to great lengths to find someone from ‘the institute of talking through their arse’ as they did today, who said “this happens every year, therefore it is not correct to call it a crisis”
BBC, you excuse for a publicly funded broadcaster, instead of trying to protect Hunt (I wrote a book on how to privatise the NHS) how about interviewing professor Allyson Pollock who really does know what she’s talking about? Would her comments and information be TOO accurate for you?
http://www.allysonpollock.com
Demand a General Election now! Get it anyway one can! Get out and demonstrate against this Government! Write to MPs. contact Trades Unions, locally and nationally,write into media, put the demand on social media! Time to organise as an electorate and don’t wait for Labour to do it! If there’s Labour branches any in your neighbourhood contact them and demand that they act, they assist and they organise!
This is an outrageous affront to democracy. The British value their NHS and would not want it sold off to privateers. It is not a government’s to sell. It’s OUR NHS.
The BBC could ask Dr Bob Gill for the facts on the privatisation of the NHS. But they are very unlikely to. He woukd tell the truth.