Topic: You could of heard a pin drop

[labrat]

The NHS (or rather Western medicine in general) is effectively run by pharmaceutical companies whose aim is to sell chemicals, not find cures that would put them out of business.

Nonsense. I work at the coal face of pharmaceutical research and it is nothing like your description. 30 years ago the number one killer of men was ulcers -  you don't hear anything about that nowadays due to pharmaceuticals. The near total eradication of smallpox due to a vaccine. There are a range of diseases, bacterial and viral, where there may never be 'cures' because of the constantly evolving nature of these organisms.

The number one contributory factor to rising life expectancy is modern medicine. So much so that the majority of diseases nowadays are a direct result of long life for which the human body is unused to.

[OllieC]

Close family who have had their lives saved by the NHS include:
My Mother
My Father
My Wife probably (twice)
Both of my children
Me probably

Nobody I know has been killed by the health system.

Some people are far too happy to knock... think about what happens to Americans that catch the wrong disease... we have a brilliant health service that, like everything, could be improved. It doesn't make it rubbish.

Anyway, how did we get onto this? I thought we were correcting grammar?!   :P

[saddad]

The near total eradication of smallpox due to a vaccine

No actually the Total eradication, the only case since 1977 was in a germ warfare lab...
That vaccine predates the chemical/pharmacutical "industry" by at least 100 years...
I hope you are all paying for "Bupa" so the NHS can bail you out if you get anything complicated/expensive/long-term...  :-X

[redimp]

The NHS has saved my life three times.  That is probably enough reason for Melbourne18 et al to knock it. ;D

[BarriedaleNick]

The NHS does have it's problems but last year it saved my Dad's life twice in the space of 4 months and looked after my Mum in her dying days allowing her dignity till the end. 

@lewic - I suffered from ulcers all my life and was told that it would kill me eventually.  I am very thankful for the antibiotics that have saved me years of pain.

@labrat - Is there really no central collation of these figures? With the best will in the world a greiving son writting in the D. Mail with no references is not the most reliable source.  I'm not saying there isnt a problem but I am amazed that there are no centrally collated figures for this data.

[labrat]

The near total eradication of smallpox due to a vaccine

the only case since 1977 was in a germ warfare lab...

Hence the word 'near' because there are still samples of it in US and Russian labs as well as a host of other countries who are suspected of conducting biological warfare research. Therefore not total eradication.

That vaccine predates the chemical/pharmacutical "industry" by at least 100 years...

That's just a little silly because all scientific development stands on the shoulders of predecessors. It's a bit like saying that going to the moon wasn't a product of 20th century ingenuity because Newton had theorised gravity centuries before. However the fact is it was pharmaceutical companies working with WHO in the 50's and 60's that put an end to smallpox in the general populace. It's not necessarily the job of pharmaceutical companies to develop new science though many do and nearly all fund new research in universities and research institutes. Most of what pharmaceutical companies do is to use basic tools that are in the journals and adapt it to their needs.

@labrat - Is there really no central collation of these figures? With the best will in the world a greiving son writting in the D. Mail with no references is not the most reliable source.  I'm not saying there isnt a problem but I am amazed that there are no centrally collated figures for this data.

I assume an MP can't just say these things because other polticians would pounce on them. But trying not to sound too pissy it is not my job to look for this information. I just highlighted a few things found with a cursory glance. There is the National Patient Safety Agency within the NHS (not great for impartiality like a NAO or ONS) which as yet doesn't publish incident reports (but plans to) but also there are many Trusts who don't submit reports or are serial low incident reporters. All a bit hap hazard from the sounds of it.