Casualties to be charged for drugs at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire's A&E department

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There is no need for name calling is there. Unlike you I dont spend all my spare time in the pub. Good for you your such a great person!”

“Sammy

The only thing that I'd believe about your ridiculous missive is that you'd be daft enough to take a part course of another person's antibiotic prescription who has been stupid enough not to finish their course.

Undoubtedly you'll be one of the loud mouthed people standing in the pub blaming the NHS for the rise in number of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

If people are inpatients of the NHS then they shouldn't be charged for drugs but if they are outpatients then they should, because it's no different to GP treatment.”

“make doctors more accessable!!! A couple of weeks ago i suffered an abcess I get these a lot however this one was nasty it had swollen to the size of a tennis ball I had a raging fever, sickness, tiredness all signs pointing to the begining of septic shock. I called my doctor and the secutary told me I could be seen in a week and 3 days. Its not like I needed a long appointment with the doctor I hate taking antibiotics and usually i will just wait for it to run its course my body in the past has dealt with infection fine, this time i did need some help so went to the walk in center in hanley, they have always been great but they were slammed so could not take any walk in paitents which i totally understand not their fault at all! I then went to the heywood and an angry receptionist told me "don't thing you can get antibiotics here!" I tried to tell her that i had been to my doctor and the hanley walk in center she tutted at me and told me "there is a 3 hour wait you should go to the A&E!" i didnt want to waste A&E staffs time they have better things to do and was told to "SIT" like a dog, i told my mum who had taken me that i was not feeling well and just wanted to sleep I needed to wee but even that was painful my poor worried mum took me home and lucky for me my brother came home rooted through the cupboard (he has a scary knowledge of perscription drugs) he found some flucloxacillin antibiotics that my mother was unable to take time ago but still in date and told me to take them, for 3 days i slept and drank water (i only drink water anyway but did not eat) by the 4th day i felt well enough to sit up for a full day. I dont go to my doctors unless it is needed but how can this be your paying for a service you do not get! there was a massive hole in my leg after the abcess popped you could see the fat under it i just had to look after it cleaning it with alcohol gel painful hey if you cant get the care!”

“Firstly, I'm not a Labour die-hard.

It may have escaped your notice, but they haven't been in government for a while.

What does a AAA rating mean to you? Can it make a difference to the cost of stuff when you go the supermarket? Or does it just mean favourable terms when our unelected government borrow more money to pay dole bills?

Deal in terms real people understand - not this posh, Eton boy theory!

George Osborne has a 2:2 in modern history and has never held down a real job... cracking!!!”

“Is this the early signs of thinning out the NHS, Next they will be having us to pay a consultation fee prior to being seen”

“And Labour's plan is?

That's right, they won't tell us. During the election campaign Gordon Brown, refused to say how he'd reduce the deficit, saying that he needed to be re-elected first.

Now the two Eds tell us that it's inappropriate for the opposition to say which cuts they'd keep and which they'd discard. In other words they don't have a plan. Now there's a team without a clue.

Labour held the purse strings for 13 years, the last ten of which they built up the largest structural deficit in history. (The first three years they followed the previous Conservative government's budget earning Mr. Brown his 'Iron Chancellor' nickname).

The Coalition have had two-and-a-half years to sort it out. Did anyone really expect the deficit to be sorted overnight? It's harder and takes more time to get out of debt than it is to get into it.

Thanks to our government's policies the UK has kept its AAA credit rating whereas France and the USA have been downgraded. Foreign investors will see the UK as a safe haven for their money, but this too won't happen overnight. The Eurozone crisis could not have been foreseen by the Chancellor, just the same as the Credit Crunch couldn't be foreseen by Mr. Brown. One thing is certain though, unchecked borrowing causes problems.

If this government don't get borrowing under control then they don't deserve to be re-elected; but one month's figures can be misleading, let's see if they hit their target for the year. I am certain of one thing though, Labour haven't learned their lesson and will never learn to control borrowing. Down that road lies certain ruin.”

“Political suicide? I wouldn't be so sure. It's a clear indication of how low this rabble are dragging this country down when forcing kids to work for private companies for nothing, throwing double amputees and cancer patients off benefits and cutting Armed Forces, they pretended to back to the hilt in opposition, to the bone are not considered political suicide.

"No top down re-organisation of the NHS" Cameron said. Not that he should be held to anything in their manifesto - afterall, they didn't win an election on it.

The icing on top... we learn today they're borrowing more than ever, half a billion in July normally a surplus month because of good tax receipts. No mandate. No popular support. No clue.”

“So the present day Conservatives are to be condemned for what their forebears did over 60 years ago? How silly would that be?

Using that as a rule we can't trust another Labour government in case the leader lies through his teeth to Parliament and takes us into an illegal war.

My wife is a nursing sister working within the NHS. She'll tell you horror stories about what goes on regardless of who's in power. Who can remember patients being forced to wait in ambulances outside A&E because the A&E staff were subject to a 4 hour 'target' once the patient had entered the building? This in turn impacted on ambulance response times. Consultants refusing to put patients on their waiting list, or moving them from list to list, so that they could appear to be hitting their 'targets'. GP surgeries refusing to allow patients to book an appointment in advance because it would look like they'd waited more than 48 hours. This caused a mad scramble for appointments with 'phone lines clogged from 8am every day. Tony Blair was challenged on live TV about this. He claimed that patients booking in advance shouldn't be in the figures. He also claimed that he knew nothing about this practice; though it was later proven that he was lying about this too.

Labour were obsessed with targets, but few of them meant anything because people find ways of manipulating figures to make sure targets appear to be being met.

Then we have PFI. Sure we have new surgeries and hospitals, but many trusts are having to pay upwards of 10% of their income to service this debt, impacting directly on patient care. Had the Labour government have just built the hospitals that would have been great; but they didn't, they built the hospitals and then saddled the trusts with the mortgages to pay for them. Not great.

The Conservatives have protected the NHS budget, there are no cuts. They just want the money spent more wisely. But NHS reforms are nothing new. Labour did more than one 'top down' restructure of the NHS in their 13 years. Do you remember the PCTs? Introduced by Labour at great expense and seemingly unable to control their budgets. Now we have GP Commissioning, maybe it'll be better than the PCTs; my guess is that it'll be exactly the same.

Both parties continually try to re-invent the wheel with the NHS. The problem is that no matter how much money is thrown at the NHS they'll spend it and then come back for more. No government of whatever persuasion will ever have enough money to fully fund our health system. But any party which attempted to dismantle the NHS would be committing political suicide and they'd never be forgiven, so the NHS is safe but it will continue to creak and groan under the pressure.”

“So DoctorDo - the party that created the NHS cannot be trusted with it as much as the party that tried to vote it down at birth? Ludicrous! Do you remember what GP's surgeries were like in the 80's and 90's? Crumbling pre war terraces in the main. Do you recall what 80's and 90's waiting lists were like?

Tell me the NHS is safe with the Tories when the effects of Lansley's miserable Bill start to be felt. Companies with the competence and deft touch of Atos and G4S running the show!”

“40 million a year for chaplins in the nhs Warren = 1,300 nurses or 2,645 cleaners.”