Moon-Crane wrote:That's something i've always wondered about. It always looked like a policy to end in tears - otherwise everywhere would be doing the same thing, if it worked so easily. Is it going to get to the stage where it all goes awry and the government has to 'bail out' the Welsh NHS to make up for the shortfall? it could be literally life and death to some patients.
Absolutely.
I don't know how Swansea hospital compares to others across England, but I
do know how it compares to e.g. Dorchester. If I hadn't have had a miscarriage last year, I would have been having my baby in Swansea. The 13 weeks experience I did have of the maternity care there pales into comparison with what I've had in Swanage this year. For instance, because of funding shortages there are no 12-week scans available in Swansea, unless you 'cheat' the system in some way, e.g. by saying that you want screening for Downs and then changing your mind after the scan. Here, and I believe in most other places in England, 12-week scans are pretty standard.
During / after the miscarriage, I was in hospital there, and although the staff were friendly enough and tried their best, the lack of equipment, staff and resources was obvious. I won't go into details but there were some serious shortfalls in my treatment due to lack of resources which led to some nasty complications - and that's just one such case, I'm sure there are hundreds. I know you hear 'horror stories' from everywhere, but having experienced it first-hand, it's obvious to me that the chronic underfunding has resulted in a pretty serious situation. This can only be made worse by stopping prescription charges.
That's really why i'd rather have Wales in charge of their own taxation within their borders, if they are able to make such starkly important decisions as the removal of a prescription charge. England will once again get the blame for the ensuing disaster, i'm sure.
I don't see how, unless people point to the reason for it being because Westminster are limiting their powers - is that what you mean? I agree though, this 'half and half' situation is not working. Personally, my view is that the National Assembly should be abolished and that it should go back to complete rule from Westminster. If the NA are given complete power, then I would be very worried about what would happen to Welsh services, etc.
However, with the recent Welsh Language laws and the progress that has been made towards devolution, I can't see the Nationalists being happy to relinquish the limited powers they have.
The English system is also a strange one, though. I don't like the way Local Authorities can make their own decisions regarding the rollouts of systems to deal with rubbish collection, recycling, etc. One system across the board should surely make it easier - and more sensible than a mish mash of systems from one county to another.
Hehe, yeah I ranted about that on another thread, so I won't say too much here! In my opinion though, that's one area that Swansea have got right and Dorset have got wrong - the recycling and refuse collection services are much more comprehensive than they are here.