From Havana to Bristol

 

“If I asked you what is the most corrupt place on Earth you might tell me well it’s Afghanistan, maybe Greece, Nigeria, the South of Italy and I will tell you it’s the UK.” Roberto Saviano, expert on the criminal dealings of the Italian Mafia.

With only 83 deaths to date, Cubans are 24 times less likely to contract Coronavirus than neighbouring Dominicans.

US Professor of government William Leogrande, has said “The whole organization of the Cuban healthcare system is to be in close touch with the population, identify health problems as they emerge, and deal with them immediately ."

Compare that to the UK where it would seem that the whole organisation of the healthcare system is to be in close touch with companies using the epidemic to grab hold of new business opportunities.

A good example is Serco, a firm in-line to be awarded a contract for Covid-19 contact tracing and that has already been awarded contracts for testing centres.

My personal experience of Serco’s catering skills during an extended stay in hospital motivated earlier research into the privatisation of the NHS.

 

In 2019, Serco—the same company whose logo you see on the side of prison vans—was fined and had to pay £3.7 m in costs to cover an electronic tagging scandal. The company, along with G4S, was accused of charging the government for electronically-monitoring people who were either dead, in jail, or had left the country.

 

Amongst many other privateers like Richard Branson and Virgin Healthcare, there is technology consulting company Deloitte who were awarded PPE-sourcing contracts by the Johnson government. They shipped in supplies from Turkey which breached safety standards and had to be sent back at your and my expense.

Does anyone else get the feeling that just as "Black Lives Matters" posters had to be hurriedly prepared for the movement now taking to the streets, the Johnson government had better prepare themselves to join Edward Colston.

 

 

 

 

hot water bottles & fans

“A new, low-carbon combined cooling, heating and power solution has been created for St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London as part of the first fully-financed PFI deal of its kind.

Delivered by Skanska, the project is part of Sustainable Development Capital‘s (SDCL) Powering Health collaboration with GE, Clarke Energy and the NHS Confederation.

Under the deal SDCL has provided finance for Skanska to deliver a low-carbon combined chilling/heating and power (CCHP) solution at the hospital. The £2.5m investment will be made by the UK Energy Efficiency Investments Fund, which has launched a £50m fund supported by the Green Investment Bank.”

Sounds great. I have been a patient at Barts hospital for a month and was a patient here in February, and neither the heating nor the air-conditioning have worked. My bed faces the west and on sunny days gets very hot. And it's autumn. A nurse told me that during the long hot summer this year the temperature on south and west-facing sides was 'unbearable' for both patients and staff. In winter, she said, it was so cold at night, they were handing out 4/5 blankets to each patient.

How can a medical institution of such excellence, with such a dedicated staff, all of whom I now admire and adore, mess things up when it comes to the simple problems of temperature and nutrition?

Answers from Skanska and Serco please. I am ill and cannot continue this struggle. Maybe others can.

Meanwhile these two photos show my solution for this hospital over the coming years.

I'm afraid I feel very depressed about all this right now so here is another Leonard Cohen to help you join me.