Coronavirus

.

 

We are thinking of doing the self scan thing . Well Mrs J is .

 

My personal experience is that most people in London are following the guidelines. This is, for the most part, a storm in a media tea cup. Obviously the government needs to keep pushing the message to stay indoors - meanwhile urban police forces like the Met, with their scarce resources, should be encouraged to keep doing what they always do, policing by consent.

Everyone loves to tell other people what to do; I think we should each be asking ourselves, am I doing enough?

It’s easy for people in big houses with large gardens to tell the populations of densely packed cities to stay in doors. But mental health is as important as physical health, and few things are better for both than exercise outdoors.

 

Norway and Finland

 

Both countries with quite low populations by comparison. What else have they done to keep numbers down?

 

Yeah, Scandinavian countries aren't really comparable to the UK or other large European countries like Italy, France, Germany etc, for all sorts of reasons.

I find it interesting though, that in those countries people generally are willing to pa\y a high rate of tax, to fund their public services. Because you get what you pay for, in health and education just as in everything else.

The liberal Swedes seem to be pushing on with a similar light touch approach our own government took at first (before changing tack). I hope they don't end up paying a heavy price for that. Or maybe they are just confident their Health Service will cope, come what may.

 

We have now been advised by government to wear masks at all times when outside.

I was also advised by my maids to cut the strings off when disposing of them because there are people collecting them out of the trash and selling them as new! Probably not the best thing to stop the spread of the virus but you have to admire the ingenuity of Indonesian entrepreneurs. It ranks up there with:

1) filling old mineral water bottles from hosepipes and selling it as bottled water
2) collecting thrown-away toll or parking tickets, ironing them and selling them to drivers to claim as expenses from their offices

 

Not sure paying more tax for schools and health is any different to paying for private health and education, but it’s beside the point anyway. Looking at places that are dealing well with huge numbers with their own version of NHS, to see if we had more beds/ventilators would we have less deaths. Going off what Tobes said, 60% death rate once on artificially assisted breathing, seems like it’d be the same more or less everywhere.

Germany seems like the exception as they are identifying and treating high-risk cases earlier. Getting people into hospital before they are at a critical stage seems to be the difference. Our NHS couldn’t handle those sort of numbers.

 

Our NHS is even less able to handle those sort of numbers, than might have been the case had it not suffered 10 years of deliberate underfunding in the name of austerity. Now is not the time for recrimination, but that much is undeniable surely?

 

We’ve lost 17,000 beds during that period, so yes, it’s undeniable.

 

We've also lost 20,000 Old Bill off our streets, but it's Sadiq Khan's fault the Met are overwhelmed by knife crime and not available to police the parks.

Still, best not go there, eh? Politics n that.

 

Not just Indonesians entrepreneurs; Peckham Spring, copyright Del and Rodney...

 

Evidently. I’m not interested in who’s fault it all is, I’m interested in seeing how many lives lost that could have been prevented. It seems like lack of beds doesn’t seem to be the issue, yet.

Proactive measures always trump reactive measures, which seems to be the major difference out there.

 

Number of beds /staff is an issue though hence the reason for cancelling of all elective surgery and t the need for the nightingale "hosp itals"plus other measures

 

For Norway, at one point hospitals were filling up, especially ICUs. People got very anxious about that, But that never really came to fruition because people here were placed into self isolation exceptionally quick. While you guys were still having discussions about potentially being in isolation I had been laid off and was on a government pay scheme, it moved very fast here.

I have advocated previously for a Norwegian style health service in Britain, I do believe it is better. But its better because people pay more, simple as. The key difference however is not strictly political as Høyre, the Norwegian Torys, are politically similar to Boris Johnson's Conservatives. Its a cultural difference, in Britain people pay lip service to the NHS all year round as opposed to paying cash.

In Norway you don't only pay much higher tax, you also pay for every doctors appointment (exception being now due to the pandemic) and pay for your prescription. People here are under the impression you are responsible for the health care service every single day, not just when there's a pandemic. If you go to the emergency room, you're taking up an important spot. So before you call, or go in, make sure its necessary. Just small things like that.

I think for the NHS to improve, people need to accept that government funding must be higher - as a more right wing minded person I have accepted that. But left wing voters must accept that people who can pay, should pay for appointments and unnecessary ER visits.

 

So many hypochondriacs in this country who’ll go to A&E with the most ridiculous reasons. The only way to stop them is to charge people at the point of service at A&E’s. Even a little £10 or £20 charge would keep the vast majority of drama queens away and free up space and services.

I’m happy to pay the dentist a little something to give my teeth an MOT every 6 months and I’d be happy to pay a little something if I needed to see a Doctor. I don’t see why it’s such a big problem with people. The NHS has been outstanding and is outstanding but the world is constantly changing and now it’s time to re-evaluate it. Clearly it could do with more financial support and every other citizen in Europe chips in for their health service and I’d be happy to do the same. That doesn’t mean we have to end up like the Yanks selling our homes for a few rounds of chemo.

 

Here you pay £35, for the cost of living its essentially the equivalent of paying less in the UK. 20 quid a visit, and if youre diagnosed with a long term medical need which requires repeat visits you pay only the once.

What's the big deal?