NHS Cuts Yet We've Just Spent 100M On Upgrading Machines For The New £1 Coin

[Jigsaw]

I never cease to be amazed that, however many austerity cuts we are gravely told are absolutely necessary to implement because we, as a country, are so skint, somehow they can always find millions for other projects. Roads, trains, and foreign aid all spring to mind.

The new 12-sided pound coin is out today. I've just seen on the news that upgrading all the pay-phones, car-park payment machines, parking meters, vending machines, etc, to accept the new pound has cost £100M.

Earlier they highlighted the NHS cuts that mean a lot of prescription items are basically being discontinued as prescription items in an effort to save millions (it could have been billions).

I get it that the pharmaceautical companies are overcharging the NHS for basics like paracetamol, and obviously that's wrong and unsustainable. I do understand that. But surely the government or a monopolies commission, or someone, should be stepping in and resolving that issue of blatant profiteering? Isn't it also in part a procurement issue? If the people responsible for buying in these items said "No, it'll be cheaper for us to buy it from a supermarket, thanks", Big Pharma wouldn't be able to continue overcharging the NHS.

If Big Pharma is charging Tesco 40p for a pack of paracetamol, and more than £4 to the NHS (according to my GP), then Big Pharma should be made to stop doing so. Ok, so you could argue that if the NHS stop buying these drugs (and other products) because of their overinflated prices, which is what they're trying to do by stopping them as prescription items, then BP won't be able to continue profiteering from the NHS in this way, and that can only be a good thing.

But meantime, a lot of people who depend on free or subsidised prescription meds because of their illness will suffer as a result. My surgery have already stopped prescribing B6, which I used to be given for depression as I can't tolerate any anti depressant drugs, and several other items that were once on my repeats.

The premise is that if you can buy it OTC, they won't actually refuse it (except that they do), but they will "actively discourage" you from asking for it on prescription.

So hearing that "they" have spent £100 million -so far- on upgrading machines/ supermarket trollies, etc, for the new pound coin irks me. I get it that it will benefit everyone in the long-run because it should stop the counterfeiting that the "round pound" has been subject to, thus ultimately benefitting the economy, but still. And since the old round pound won't officially be out of circulation until October, presumably there will be still more conversion costs to meet.

When so many cuts are being made to health and welfare services to the detriment of so many vulnerable people, wouldn't that 100 million quid plus have been better spent on those areas instead?

 

[SilverbladeTE]

We should have come down like the hammers on the bankers for ruining the world economy...but of course, they got away with it, isn't that surprising...not!
one of the worst disasters in modern history, seriously it is

and so, the Elite found a great excuse for "Austerity", which is really an excuse for them to evade paying tax and letting the entire country fall apart. Exactly what happened in Germany in 1933

Note: that financial crash has killed MILLIONS of people, you just don't see it, knock on effects have caused hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths across modern Western nations
depending on who's figures you take, Austerity in the UK has caused the death of over 10,000 disabled people.
you don't SEE it, except for those who see family members committing suicide, but the deaths from closing down Accident and Emergency centres...unrepaired infrastructure resulting in accidents...poor folks being screwed out of welfare by deliberate secret government policy, stress causing disabled/elderly folk to die etc, all adds up

But in the Third and Developing World, it was catastrophic.

and the scumbag media barons blamed it on "the immigrants!"...the European Union, the Poles...the scum on welfare, the disabled....ah huh.
well they couldn't blame the social problems on the Jews like they used to through past few centuries, because that would be too obvious and nowadays the Jews would fight back: Mossad would nail their asses P.D.Q !
the real villains of the piece were, as usual, the Elite.

So, say good bye to the National health Serivce, the British Military, yoru police forces, they already sodl off the utilities and are completing that process so foreign corporations can charge you whatever they want for water, electricity and gas
oh and they privatized our nuclear weapons manufacture and storage.
Amongst other things.


Terrorists, like that selfish bloody loony in London the other day, are flea bites, yes, horrific, but NOTHING compared to the death tolls the Elite cause by playing their game
same crap lead to the collapse of the Roman Empire
our collapse will be VASTLY worse, for example, the UK has to import 3/4 of it's food.
When the UK collapses, note it's only propped up by the oil revenues the scumbags have squandered largely on tax cuts for the rich....then people will die by the millions, cities will become hecatombs
all because the rich and powerful wanted MORE, ever MORE...like devouring black holes, never sated, never saying "enough is enough"

 

[wdb]

£100 million sounds a lot but it might not go as far as you'd think, the NHS budget is £120 billion per year, that is £100 million every 7.3 hours.

The £100 million spent on the new pound coin is also presumably intended to save much more than that in the long run.