Cuts, cuts and more cuts

I have no problem with the reality of a recession and belts being tightened, this is just an inevitability and part of life. One thing I do resent is the fact that the last government spent so recklessly off the balance sheet in the form of various PFI schemes.

Numerous NHS Trusts around the country are now paying for the government's errors, they are having to service these PFI contracts and a disproportionate amount of money has to be fenced off to do this. These costs cannot be trimmed, the contracts were set in stone years ago, it is as if the government sold its soul and we are now paying the price, there is no going back.

So while essential services are cut, while patients suffer as PCTs restrict access to essential operations and medicines, it is ridiculous that there is no risk to the income of the private firms who have their hands in the NHS' till. These private firms and guaranteed their profit, they will get their money come what may. The system is all wrong, how can this be right when the blind old man with cataracts is not guaranteed a fix, or the limping old lady with a painful hip is not guaranteed a reasonably speedy operation?

Cuts to local government budgets for social care are going to compound this problem. We are already massively short of beds as it is, so with winter coming and money short, as well as our increasingly aged population, there are some very stormy times ahead.