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(not satire – it’s the Cameron government)
In an effort to outflank Farage, the Cameron government announced in July that all non-EU visitors to the UK will be charged 150% of the normal fees to use the NHS:
“Patients from outside the EU to be charged 150% of the cost of treatment in the NHS.”
But yesterday the government announced they were advising non-EU visitors to voluntarily contact the NHS if they develop symptoms of Ebola while in the UK:
“Passengers to be told to make contact with the NHS should they develop Ebola symptoms.”
The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he hoped travellers from those countries would “self-present” to the authorities if they developed any symptoms of illness.
In other words, the Cameron government is hoping possible Ebola patients will voluntarily contact the NHS if they have symptoms, while at the same time threatening them with having to pay 150% of the fees for their treatment if they do.
Anybody else see the serious – and possibly extremely dangerous – flaw in the government’s plans?
.
Cameron is putting the entire UK at risk just to win back a few votes from UKIP.
Please feel free to comment. And share. Thanks:
Pride's Purge 
Pingback: Dangerous blunder? Government deterring Ebola patients from seeking treatment? | Alternative News Network
Well, that’s what happens when you make policy decisions on the trotter.
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Tom – I don’t think this is tenable. If somebody thinks they might be infected with the Ebola virus and so are facing death, then I don’t think they will avoid seeking treatment because they might (but actually won’t) get a bill afterwards.
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Except if they dont have the illness then they will be charged as they will live, also ebola has a survival rate even though MSM only use the “you’re fucked you’re all gona die” style headlines.
Anyone who is “ill” will more likely not present, both because of the human mentality of “its nothing… it can’t be… not me surely…” but the idea of being hit with a huge bill is also likely to add to the “na, won’t bother” thinking.
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Are you claiming that people will be charged if their symptoms and history make Ebola a possibility, but it turns out they only have a cold? I think you need to read the proposals more carefully!
I don’t agree with these charging proposals, but the Ebola epidemic has f*ck all to do with it, and to conflate the two as Tom has done is simply wrong. That is the point I was trying to make.
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When speed is of the essence in identifying Ebola, surely people will first think they may have the flue, in which case they would treat themselves, putting everyone around them at risk and allowing it to spread further.
I do think politicians today are the wrong people to assess medical risk and policies that appease the racist minority are really just pandering to their whims.
People need to understand that we can afford our health system, it is just lying politicians serve the Financial interests of the Banks in promoting debt, we can afford to pay, just ask yourselves how we fought the last world war, they printed the money to do it.
Lets consider what society needs not what the Bankers tell us we need.
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If you have just been in West Africa and you’re not aware of what a fever might mean, then you must have missed every news report in the whole world…… in which case you certainly wouldn’t know about UK health charges either.
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Anyone who tries to get into the UK from Central or West Africa and is contaminated with deadly Ebola virus should be quarantined in police cells then charged wih endangering life as a bio-terrorist. Nigel Farage is right on this: If we are going to prevent AIDS victims coming into this country from Africa then it is even more imperative that we prevent Ebola cases, otherwise we will all get the pandemics and die.
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What drivel! The sad and appalling truth is that the votes of idiots like you will probably dictate the balance of power in the UK at the next election
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I suppose you won the Nobel Prize for Medicine?
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You think the best solution is to put highly contagious patients in the care of the police, who have no training and no equipment to control the disease, and who spend their entire working days dealing with countless members of the public?????
YOU ARE A COMPLETE F*CKING IDIOT AND I IMPLORE YOU TO NEVER, EVER VOTE.
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Hey I’ve got an idea FinkFurst. Why don’t you try actually having a conversation with someone for once without resorting to calling them an idiot.
Go on have a go – I’m sure you can do it if you really try.
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The problem is that the initial symptoms – headaches, temperature etc – are similar to a cold or flu. If people are worried they might be charged a lot of money for seeing a doctor or being tested for infection, they will put off seeing one until their condition gets more serious. During this time the virus is infectious and a patient could infect a lot of people.
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Tom – I’m sorry, you’re right. In future I’ll try to vary my vocabulary and use moron, dolt, oaf, halfwit, imbecile, etc.
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No you’re wrong, not if they’ve recently been in West Africa.
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Here’s a radical suggestion… instead of agreeing with the political parties who think spending half a million dollars on one missile which might kill one ISIS guy with a gun, and also half a dozen other people in the area (and nobody gives a shit who they are), let’s spend it on giving remedial treatment and containment for the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which would save dozens or hundreds of lives.
Alternatively let’s listen to moronic party political drivel on web sites like this, which is obsessed with mindless Tory-bashing, and so do absolutely nothing useful at all.
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So FinkFurst – rather than listen to “drivel” on “websites like this” – why not do us all a favour and “f*ck off” then?
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@ tunefultony
No, you don’t quarantine suspected cases of Ebola in police cells, where the virus will spread to all and sundry. We quarantine them in the appropriate facilities in UK hospitals.
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FF…
You are at again!
Must I monitor you?
Tom…FF has an anger problem…though no doubt he does not recognize it ’cause he is too lazy .For some reason he feels justified. He after all is ‘superior’ to us mortals. Angst comes to mind…..
FF… you will never get people to listen to your point of view if you come across as angry…. because, people will hear you anger first and foremost.
Then, they will turn away if they have any sense.
Hey, how about joining ISIS! 🙂
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Because I think mindless party political allegiance is primarily where UK politics and government is going wrong, and I’m hoping that you might eventually think I might have a valid point. I’m afraid I’m not particularly interested in doing you any favours.
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P.S. If you would like to discuss the actual issues instead of just inviting me to fuck off, then please feel free to do so.
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@ FinkFurst
I agree (and liked) this bit:
“Here’s a radical suggestion… instead of agreeing with the political parties who think spending half a million dollars on one missile which might kill one ISIS guy with a gun, and also half a dozen other people in the area (and nobody gives a shit who they are), let’s spend it on giving remedial treatment and containment for the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which would save dozens or hundreds of lives.”
……….but you spoiled it with your final paragraph.
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Pssst….pass me the Kleenex Tom…..’cause I have had a hard day trying to teach young women to stand up for themselves without resorting to HR …PC…bollox rubbish! One girl wld rather play the victim card like FF and the other heard me! I am getting too old for this nonsense….I am seriously thinking of entering a place of solitude ’cause me time is up. 😦
Why is it that females wld rather be weak than go on a martial arts/assertive training course?
Where are my Warriors?
Well, in truth my daughter is one……though I wld not be in a hurry to challenge her! She is bigger than me anyway.. I mean taller( and thin)… and feisty….wot did I give birth too?
Still, I keep pushing acceptable boundaries, because that is wot I do.
I really wish that FF would do that as well…he thinks he does…but he does not.
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‘ I’m afraid I’m not particularly interested in doing you any favours’.
There you go again!
Point proven!
FF wtf do you think you are?
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Jumped up little squirt I say!
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Hey FF
This respectfully is for you….the best there is in this country.
Human Givens @humangivens ·
Effective #anger management
Tuesday 21st October 2014 – #LONDON http://bit.ly/1w1ym5V #humangivens
…
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“Because I think mindless party political allegiance is primarily where UK politics and government is going wrong, and I’m hoping that you might eventually think I might have a valid point.”
Do I have a valid point?
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Ff…there is more than one way to skin a cat……
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But man, proud man,
Dressed in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep.
Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/but_man_proud_man_dressed_in_a_little#hBSap4HdkIcga7Sk.99
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Tom – If you ‘like’ an imbecile who suggests joining ISIS because she can scarcely get three brain cells to talk to each other, then you’ve lost any sense of morality.
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Tom – The people who like your responses are ditsy halfwit and a brainless UKIP supporter. What does that tell you?
Go on, try having a serious discussion with me and see what happens……
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I tried it – several times. All you did was call me idiot about a hundred times. So – no thanks.
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If I’ve told you once I’ve told you a million times, don’t exaggerate!
In fact I don’t think I’ve ever said I think you’re an idiot, because unlike some of your contributors, you clearly are not. If you don’t want a discussion then that’s fine. Give a real reason, or say you don’t need any reason. Both are valid arguments, but please don’t invent things.
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Pingback: Dangerous blunder? Government deterring Ebola p...
Going back to Tom’s blog, I see two holes in Jeremy’s plans as stated –
a) given the traffic in MSF volunteers to W Africa, any returning back to EU jobs will be EU citizens that have been directly exposed to Ebola (within protective plastic eqpt of course, despite which at least 3 seem to have been infected), so wouild UK ones “self-present” to NHS ? How would they do it? GP waiting room? Ebola hotline?
b) Even if non-EUs do “self-present” there’s no guarantee they will be “treated” – they could simply be re-packaged back to their country of origin (OK. a bloody stupid idea, but UK is good at bloody-stupid ideas of this type)
and in additiion, c) what about travellers from W Africa on a private flight or a yacht travelling via an EU country to any one of several dozen UK air-strips or ports ?
It only needs one (‘qualified provider’?) to slip through the knee-jerk lacework ‘protective shield’ initially covering Gatwick, London and Eurostar to cause severe mayhem. Why not modify the Rabies protocols that used to be in place at each port?
And on top of this, as I understand it, the only level 4 equipped hospital beds are in North London, and there is as yet, no real treatment (all previously existing trial drugs have been used up, though some products may be available in a week, or two, or…..) for ebola except to administer effectively palliative care and hope that the victim’s immune system might be one of those that pulls through.
Ebola is nasty. It and its victims need to be treated with the greatest medical respect if it is not to escape into the general population.
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wildswimmerpete – Sorry, I didn’t see your reply before. I was referring to the contributors as much as to Tom Pride. Tom is clearly a staunch Labour supporter and he uses his site to bash the other parties. He doesn’t claim to be impartial, so that’s absolutely open and fair. To his credit he operates the comments area as a free speech zone, and so criticising him for his political bias is clearly valid and also must be acceptable to him.
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I don’t think even *this* government would deliberately let Ebola lose in the UK, it’s not *that* bad. But an outbreak would suit it as it could call off the election and abolish what civil liberties we have left in the name of fighting Ebola.
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