HearFromYourMP

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• Posted by Mike Ranson, 08:54, Tue 27 July 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #

  First, thank you for this explanation of the 'resource allocation formula'. I know that I've written to you in the past to ask what this meant and you supplied the definition, but your article above helps put it into context.

  Second, congratulations on embracing this new medium! If there is not yet a large audience, I'm sure that your participation and contribution to this website will certainly attract one. Like wasps to honey, you might say.

• Posted by Colin Holce, 08:59, Tue 27 July 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #

  Good to see that we are moving with the times but sadly people without access to the internet will be left behind with this kind of thinking.

• Posted by rod boardman, 09:27, Tue 27 July 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #

  Many thanks for the information,it being a situation we were not aware of.I suppose it is now a matter of wait and see if this coalition Government does keep to their word and put more money into the sadly lacking NHS. Regards:ROD BOARDMAN.

• Posted by Ian Evans, 09:36, Tue 27 July 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #

  Thanks for the explanation of the funding formula and how it affects Warrington and, echoing the other two comments, I'm very pleased to see you embracing open ways of communicating with constituents. Thank you.

  Presumably the guaranteed increase in spending will benefit all PCTs based on the current funding formulae. How are you planning to address the way the smoothing formula works against growing towns such as Warrington?

• Posted by Lorraine Kay, 10:56, Tue 27 July 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #

  The world’s major pharmaceutical corporations are collectively known as Big Pharma. Like other globalised corporate giants, Big Pharma has in recent years accrued massive power in shaping regulation of business to suit their own interests. They will be sniffing around Gleneagles in July, claiming to support efforts to tackle disease and HIV/AIDS in Africa, but the profit motive comes first. The political influence of Big Pharma has serious implications for populations in both rich and poor countries, for distinct reasons.

  Big Pharma's marketing strategies in rich countries are increasingly aggressive. Here in the UK there are real costs to the NHS and to the health of patients. There is the increasing drugs bill for a start. New drugs present one of the biggest cost pressures on the NHS, whose drugs bill is rising by around 13 per cent each year.[1] Additionally, drugs companies increasingly invent diseases requiring their products as a way of increasing profits. This is so well established, it is known as 'disease mongering.'[2]

  On a global scale, Big Pharma has huge influence over the World Trade Organisation, which sets international trade rules. The industry has directed the positions of the US, European and Japanese governments, forcing developing country governments to sign up to an agreement against their interests. The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), established at the WTO ten years ago, has ensured that northern knowledge-based industries have strengthened their grip on the global control of knowledge and political power to protect their profits.[3] The industry increasingly makes money not from the drugs they make but from the patents which allow them to charge exorbitant prices. The motives are clear. The combined value of the world’s top five drug companies is twice the combined GNP of all sub-Saharan Africa. Pharmaceutical profits are among the highest of any commercial sector. Yet, considering the G8 agenda this year, Blair's Commission for Africa report pays scant attention to TRIPS and its implications for Africa's health.

  Paradoxically, while most people lack adequate access to essential medicines, millions of others are subject to an over-consumption and over-prescription of medicines. Some estimates suggest up to 5% of hospital admissions in the UK may be due to adverse drug reactions.[4]

  Big Pharma is finding new and creative ways of making us take their medicines. At present, advertising prescription-only medicines directly within the European Union (EU) is illegal. One alternative strategy is to make as many people as possible believe that they have a particular disorder and to imply that medicines are the best, if not only, solution. To assist this process, companies initiate "disease awareness campaigns", benefiting from association with patients’ groups to have their promotional messages accepted as balanced information. For the UK in 2005, the BBC lists details of six disease awareness months, eleven disease awareness days and forty-eight disease awareness weeks.[5] Drug companies also pay PR firms to invent fake patient groups to raise 'awareness' of their diseases.[6]

  Selling cures for imaginary diseases is where the drug industry rakes in the cash. This is illustrated well by modern pharma research. Glaxo Smith Kline took the antidepressant Seroxat and had it approved to treat shyness, now reclassified as 'social anxiety disorder.' Barry Brand, the product director, told the journal Advertising Age, ''Every marketer's dream is to find an unidentified or unknown market and develop it. That's what we were able to do with social anxiety disorder.'[7]

  Another tactic of Big Pharma is the targeting of health staff as promoters of their products. The ethical campaign group 'No Free Lunch' gave evidence to a UK Select Committee last year, on 'the troubling and inappropriate hospitality' offered by Big Pharma, including expensive lunches (£50 plus) and the use of exclusive hotels (including Gleneagles), describing it as common practice..[8]

  As the NHS now permits nurses to prescribe in some cases, the pharmaceutical industry is preparing to take full advantage. As one industry spokesperson put it: "The good news is that for those prepared to rethink their approach, the door is wide open to take competitive advantage."[9]

  NHS nurses have been invited on luxury trips to four and five star hotels by pharma firms which manufacture the drugs they are now allowed to prescribe. Earlier this year, Astra Zeneca entertained nurses and doctors at a dinner at the four star groucho St Jude's in Glasgow. Nurses were also invited by AZ to the five star Cameron House hotel on the banks of Loch Lomond in Scotland. This trip was cancelled at short notice. Des Spence, from No Free Lunch UK, had raised concerns about it with the Association of the British Pharma Industry.[10]

  At the level of the Scottish parliament, corporate lobbyists are also mooching around trying to buy influence and access government budgets, such as NHS funding. The International Advisory Group of Scottish Enterprise, Scotland's main economic development agency, funded by the Scottish Executive, includes the chief executive of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca,[11] Let's not forget the discovery a couple of years ago that New Labour's Margaret Jamieson MSP, had signed a ten year confidentiality agreement with drugs giant Pfizer after a number of meetings with the company, including one in New York. At the time she was chair of the health committee of the Scottish parliament.[12] At the level of the UK government, serious questions are now being asked about the cosy relationship between government and the industry. The House of Commons Select Committee reported earlier this year on a clear conflict of interests:[13]

  "The Department of Health has not only to promote the interests of the pharmaceutical industry but also the health of the public and the effectiveness of the NHS. There is a dilemma here which cannot be readily glossed over. The Secretary of State for Health cannot serve two masters. The Department seems unable to prioritise the interests of patients and public health over the interests of the pharmaceutical industry.."

  On the question of wider political influence, the industry's impact on international trading rules, through the WTO, is well documented. The WTO in turn, is largely controlled by the G8 countries. Since 1995, corporate leaders have been directly involved in G8 governance.[14] The CEO of Shell oil, Mark Moody-Stuart, is likely to put in an appearance at Gleneagles this summer as co-chair of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS. With HIV/AIDS central to the G8's Africa Agenda, the Coalition, which argues that above all confronting the epidemic makes good business sense, are likely to make their presence felt. The Coalition had a lobbying presence at the G8 Summit in Genoa. It includes pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Merck, Roche and Bayer. UK drinks multinational Diageo is also a member of the Coalition. (How cosy: Diageo and the drugs companies are members of the HIV/AIDS coalition, and Gleneagles, owned by Diageo, hosts the same drug companies' junkets for health staff).

  Although Blair has promised to address poverty in Africa, and to address the devastating impact of disease and HIV/AIDS in the continent, the G8's decisions will be heavily influenced again by the interests of astonishingly rich Big Pharma. There is no denying that some of the medicines produced by Big Pharma can alleviate suffering and save lives. But corporate greed and rich governments' collusion ensure that our health and the health of Africans will continue to suffer unnecessarily.

  I do NOT support the NHS... holistic and natural therapy is what prevents and cures dis-eases!

• Posted by Lakh Gossal, 11:17, Tue 27 July 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #

  Thank You Mr Mowat for this message. It's wonderful that you have taken the initiative to post this.

  Now that the pleasantries are over, may I cut straight to the chase. I work in the NHS. Instead of moaning about underfunding all the time (which is a cry to raise more taxes). Why oh why, oh why, don't we take a look at the PCT and recognise once and for all that there is far too much waste there. I know the new GP Consortia will take over from next year with funding hospital providers, I just hope GP's do not build themselves little empires again like they did with GP Fund Holding. Not only that, some hospitals are a bedrock for waste (please note I am not implying Warrington is wasting resources) but I'm sure like other hospitals it needs to take a real good look at itself, is it really get the most out it's doctors, is it really operating as efficiently as it could, does it really need tiers of management. I have no quarms with Nurses (and by the way I am not a nurse - they work really hard) - which is not true for most Consultants and Managers I come into contact with. These two sets of people spend more time arguing the toss than actually getting down and caring for the patients. For most Consultants, it's money first and patient care(in the NHS) second. You only need to look at how much work consultants do in the private sector and compare this to how much they do within the confines of the NHS to see this.

  So please, forget crying about underfunding, we all know the money just isn't there - it's probably been shared out to all the long list of unemployed, asylum, wasteful council grants etc etc scroungers in Warrington. I think you should focus your efforts on making people work harder for their money and those that are not working a drastic cut in the support you are providing them - that will get them thinking! It can be done, just needs a little backbone.

  ...and don't even get me talking about waste at Warrington Council. I'm appauled at the doubling of Council Tax in the last 10 years.

• Posted by sarah hall, 11:50, Tue 27 July 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #

  It was great to hear from an MP through this new medium.

  I am concerned about funding but surely the problem for hospitals like schools and many other govt funded areas is a problem of corporation.... by this I mean the way in which it run and it's mission statement. What is the mission statement of the NHS? I know that my disabled son does not have the access to basic medical services that others have ( blood tests). I know that my highly experienced mother was re-configured and removed from the NHS and then asked THREE months later to go back as no one wanted to work on the heavy stroke/rehab ward. I know that at halton I was given medication with out asking my name, telling me what it was etc. I know I can challenge these things but I can't change overspending on ......what are we spending the money on? Who is getting all the care? Are there lots of new diseases and illnesses that cost much more treat ?

  It isn't staff, so it must be drugs? or managers? I am not doubting that organisations need someone to manage paperwork but is it all really necessary and how much does it pull from front line services? I really don't know enough to comment about running a health authority but I can be sure if you had thrown money at me I would definitely be more profitable not less! so what has gone wrong and where has it been spent?

  I applaud the post above, do your job or go! There are a huge majority of us who do and will be paying for this for years. Perhaps we could have mystery patients....they would soon see what the issues were!

• Posted by m bradley, 21:48, Tue 27 July 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #

  Well this is a change being able to get information from my MP thank you for the opportunity, my last MP threatened me with legal action when i asked a question about her expenses. I have to agree with LAKH in her posting, I have been employed in the NHS and have seen at first hand how all these managers have been created (they give them a new title) and it is not the managers or asst managers who do any work it is the clerk who is payed a lot less than £50/60 thousand a year, can any of these managers save a life, are they held responsible for the death of a patient, can they have there badge taken off them NO but the nurses who have to abide by all the rules get half or less than the managers,NO NURSES,NO DOCTORS,we will not need MANAGERS. So make the cuts in Management and the people who walk around with a file in there hands just to look like there doing something and having a good chat to a friend about there night out. Also the cleaning contracted out that is when all the problems with infections started, this also needs to be addressed (how much has been payed out in compensation ?). Walk in centers are another waste of money i have attended myself plus had to take workers from my company and each time after a long wait was told i needed to take them to hospital and in my case see my doctor.

• Posted by Stefan Spiro, 12:38, Mon 2 August 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #

  As a tax payer this level of underfunding is of grave concern. If the main reason is indeed the fact that Warringtons population has out grown the projections then there should be measures to address this as an exception. This is unfair for both people who have lived in the Warrington for many years and those coming into the area. Having been in hospital on a number of occassions recently it is evident that the staff are doing what they can but they need more funding. The proposed changes to GP's and funding will add even more issues to this growing problem.

• Posted by m bradley, 20:03, Wed 4 August 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #

  stefan We all agree with more funding but the extra funding should go into the nursing staff not the administration ie; managers we need less management and more trained nurses who get a decent wage, after all it is the nurses/ doctors who have to work extra shifts, the management and most of the clerical staff work 9am to 5pm then clock off.I say get rid of half of them and it will release money to pay for extra nurses, and any extra funding they get will be a bonus.

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