Balanced or unbalanced these are facts.

[SydneyRover]

‘’How a decade of privatisation and cuts exposed England to coronavirus.

Government reliance on private contractors follows dramatic changes to local councils and public services’’

Some excerpts not all by far.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/31/how-a-decade-of-privatisation-and-cuts-exposed-england-to-coronavirus

 ‘’Nottingham has had its central government support grant cut by 80% since 2013’’
Anonymous spokes said  “Protecting the public’s health is, and has always been, a priority for the UK government,” she said.

‘’ Next month, Britain will mark an anniversary many Conservative ministers would rather forget. Shortly after 12.30pm on 22 June 2010, George Osborne stepped up to the dispatch box as chancellor of the new coalition government and announced the longest and deepest period of cuts to public service spending since the second world war’’

‘’Cameron promised he would “cut the deficit, not the NHS” and Osborne ringfenced its budget. It got cash increases, but these were less than 1% a year, and failed to keep pace with growing demand from an ageing population’’

‘’The government boasts that its new Test and Trace programme will mobilise an “army” of contact tracers. But in the two months leading up to 12 March, PHE’s team resembled no more than a small platoon. The Guardian has established it consisted of just 70 staff in its field services, 120 in local health protection teams, and 20 specially recruited clinical staff. In total, the contact tracing operation to manage the pandemic consisted of just 210 people’’

Some before the recent election were insisting that the NHS had not been privatised and many were singing the praises of this government’s tenure or blaming labor? whether that was what they thought or just trolling is hard to know.

The result 60,000 dead and as many have said it didn’t have to be like this.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Classic Guardian that, all else fails blame the private companies.  Clearly some issues and points made but the rush to blame privatisation for anything is not a fair point.

I'm yet to see how comments on privatisation can be a fact criticising anything.  There aren't many things in the country that could run without private companies.

[SydneyRover]

To be fair maybe you should itemise the parts you don't agree with, the Guardian has listed quite a few areas where the government and the companies appointed have failed.

A classic case of blaming the messenger.

[River Don]

I think we can fairly say that the NHS has been run at and beyond its full capacity for a longtime now.

When the pandemic came along it exposed the fact that, there was no slack in the system.

This has meant that to cope, the largest part of the NHS service has had to be put on hold, whilst almost everything has been thrown at coping with the disease.

The outcomes of this are yet to be seen clearly, since so many patients will be waiting with undiagnosed and deteriorating complaints.

[tyke1962]

‘’How a decade of privatisation and cuts exposed England to coronavirus.

Government reliance on private contractors follows dramatic changes to local councils and public services’’

Some excerpts not all by far.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/31/how-a-decade-of-privatisation-and-cuts-exposed-england-to-coronavirus

 ‘’Nottingham has had its central government support grant cut by 80% since 2013’’
Anonymous spokes said  “Protecting the public’s health is, and has always been, a priority for the UK government,” she said.

‘’ Next month, Britain will mark an anniversary many Conservative ministers would rather forget. Shortly after 12.30pm on 22 June 2010, George Osborne stepped up to the dispatch box as chancellor of the new coalition government and announced the longest and deepest period of cuts to public service spending since the second world war’’

‘’Cameron promised he would “cut the deficit, not the NHS” and Osborne ringfenced its budget. It got cash increases, but these were less than 1% a year, and failed to keep pace with growing demand from an ageing population’’

‘’The government boasts that its new Test and Trace programme will mobilise an “army” of contact tracers. But in the two months leading up to 12 March, PHE’s team resembled no more than a small platoon. The Guardian has established it consisted of just 70 staff in its field services, 120 in local health protection teams, and 20 specially recruited clinical staff. In total, the contact tracing operation to manage the pandemic consisted of just 210 people’’

Some before the recent election were insisting that the NHS had not been privatised and many were singing the praises of this government’s tenure or blaming labor? whether that was what they thought or just trolling is hard to know.

The result 60,000 dead and as many have said it didn’t have to be like this.

These are exactly the type of issues facing the Labour Party because it's clear finding simple solutions to complex problems by simply throwing tax payers money at these issues isn't any kind of solution either .

I'm not suggesting the privatisation solves everything model adopted by the Tories is a solution either .

Almost everyone goes out clapping the NHS on a Thursday night but see how much they clap if taxes increase to pay for the bugger or even find a government with the balls to put it in a manifesto pre election .

There are some serious debates need to be had on the future of the NHS in my opinion .

Privatisation solves everything v it's our greatest achievement so we throw millions at it aren't credible views ...... in my opinion .

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

To be fair maybe you should itemise the parts you don't agree with, the Guardian has listed quite a few areas where the government and the companies appointed have failed.

A classic case of blaming the messenger.

It's a very misleading article name and does absolutely nothing to link anything with private companies, a pretty poor worded headline.

Right at the start;
 - does it matter what words are printed on the vest?  These employees would be the same people NHS or private company?

Yet those who have experienced the government’s emerging testing and tracing operations for Covid-19 have had limited contact with the NHS. Instead, Britons with symptoms are directed to a network of 50 drive-through testing centres, set up by management consultants at Deloitte.

Upon arrival, patients are marshalled not by NHS staff, but workers in hi-vis jackets supplied by outsourcing companies, such as Serco, G4S, Mitie and Sodexo. Those who cannot make the drive have received postal test kits, processed by the private diagnostics company Randox and delivered by Amazon.

The article then goes on to talk about a load of things that are absolutely nothing to do with privatisation, largely talks about PHE and reorganisation of the public sector.  In fact even one of the points it makes in there is about the reluctance to use non PHE testing labs etc, which is exactly my point.  Use the private companies who can deliver this stuff better when it's needed.

[Glyn_Wigley]

Classic Guardian that, all else fails blame the private companies.  Clearly some issues and points made but the rush to blame privatisation for anything is not a fair point.

I'm yet to see how comments on privatisation can be a fact criticising anything.  There aren't many things in the country that could run without private companies.

The civil service worked just fine without them. Replacing people who worked for the various departments dealing face-to-face with the public with private company call centres staffed by people who don't know the subjects they're talking about and pressuring their workers to get rid of one call and get on to the next one as quickly as possible (and so telling the caller any old bullshit just to get rid of them) isn't working.

[SydneyRover]

Sounds like you didn't read it before your first comment and now have zeroed in on a couple of things you don't agree with, If you read the 'misleading' title you will see that it talks about more than privatisation.

You were ready to hang JC out to dry on the word of the sun and the mail without anything from him about the incident, this article was the work of 6 journalists on one of the most reputable newspapers in the UK.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Sounds like you didn't read it before your first comment and now have zeroed in on a couple of things you don't agree with, If you read the 'misleading' title you will see that it talks about more than privatisation.

You were ready to hang JC out to dry on the word of the sun and the mail without anything from him about the incident, this article was the work of 6 journalists on one of the most reputable newspapers in the UK.

Rubbish, I suggest reading what I actually sais, I didn't talk about the rest of the article because I didn't disagree or know enough about it.

But I do know a fair amount about private companies working in the public sector and factually despite the article stating privatisation exposed the country to coronvlavirus clearly it doesn't.  Again any excuse to get at the private companies.

[SydneyRover]

The title doesn't exclusively say that of course but in your zeal to find fault I don't think you have read it correctly, I think you're also overlooking who hired the private companies.

If I had to mark your critique you would have be lucky to get 2/10

No detail, no evidence to support your findings except personal dare I say bias? 

[selby]

  Any government would have problems with the younger generations in this country.
  Generations that organise demonstrations that flout our own medical advice to avoid close contact in support of someone thousands of miles away in another country, go in their droves to beaches and do exactly the same being at close proximity to strangers in the middle of the worst health pandemic in 80 years.
  And then turn around and use the medical advice and the pandemic to say it is too early to go back to work and go to school.

[bpoolrover]

Bfyp you have scored a 2 out of ten, try harder next time or you will be in detention

[drfchound]

selby, I had reason to go down Princes Avenue in Stainforth yesterday afternoon.
There were two front gardens with around 15 people in each, lots of bottles of beer on show and barbecues used on the go.
No obvious social distancing.

[selby]

  Providing healthcare in this country needs to be overhauled from top to bottom more on the management side than the medical side.
  This Pandemic has highlighted how good the people at the sharp end are at their jobs, and how poor the administration and management are. There are no excuses some have been caught out big time, are poor at their job and certainly do not warrant being kept in place.
  The private sector for elderly care  have been let down massively with bad decisions of returning what the media call bed blockers  by the central hospitals, without proper foresight of the repercussions of spreading the virus back to the private sector.
  A massive medical management mistake by the NHS where accountability must be found and again should be got rid of.

[SydneyRover]

It has been pointed out by bst that the NHS is one of the best when it come to efficiency there any part of it turned over to the private sector is pulling money out of it.