minimum waits for what are described as “routine” out patients (8 weeks) and “routine” inpatient day-case care (20 weeks).
First of all let me assure you that what you have just read is not a misprint or the result of a senior moment on my part. We really are talking about minimum waiting times. What the letter is saying is that people should have to wait at least that length of time before they are treated even if hospital and doctors are available.
Doctors I have spoken to say they have never come across anything like this before. It is, of course, yet another wheeze to enable the NHS to save money and implement the Government’s cuts programme. What an extraordinary commentary on the state of the NHS, after so many billions of pounds of your money have been poured into it in the last few years. And what an extraordinary commentary on the mismanagement of the NHS over that period.
I know that many of you were very seriously inconvenienced by last week’s Operation Stack. I share your concerns and have made numerous efforts over the years to persuade the authorities to make proper provision for lorries that are faced with long delays because of the problems with the harbour at Dover or at the Channel Tunnel.
Only last week, Damian Collins, my successor as Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for the constituency, attended a meeting, on my behalf, at Kent Police Headquarters in Maidstone. Richard Ashworth MEP has also been very active on the subject.
What we all want is some form of public commitment to the provision of a solution from which we can all benefit. I shall certainly do what I can to press for this. But the amount of money involved makes it unlikely that we shall see progress in the immediate future. I shall keep you posted.
Incidentally, just in case you wondered, I am not one of the MP’s who has asked for our salaries to be increased to £100,000 a year. Moreover, I think it’s quite wrong that MP’s should decide how much we should be paid. I would give the decision to the independent Top Salaries Review Board and would accept whatever conclusion they reached.
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