Last week young Billy Caldwell had his medication taken away from him when he was entering the UK travelling back from Canada. His condition is Epilepsy, and his medication, Cannabis Oil. The oil which he effectively uses to reduce seizures is legal in Canada but as you would expect with our excessively stringent drug laws remains illegal In the United Kingdom. After being admitted to the nearest treatment centre his mother made a telling statement.
“The home office have signed my sons death warrant”.
When 12-year-old Billy was discharged from hospital after last weekend his clearly anguished mother made a statement to BBC News about the culpability of confiscation that led her son to be admitted into medical care. “The responsibility is that of the home office in the United Kingdom” she distressingly declared on the steps of the Chelsea and Westminster hospital. But before she could utter another word the news broadcaster cut her off mid sentence cutting to the Prime Minister who was delivering another of her key note statement on the NHS funding argument. It would be almost comical if it wasn’t so brazenly bias for a prime news service to sever a grief stricken mother off who blames the UK Government for the sickness of her son and shifting the necessity of focus to the leader of the country who states almost in almost (im) perfect timing, “The NHS is there when we need it”. This was a foul move by the British Broadcasting Corporation in what was supposed to comfort the viewer into believing that the Conservative party are supporting the National Health Service, instead of doing right by the many children who’re affected by not having access to this treatment. Since Billy was sanctioned his medication the government have attempted to politically whitewash the issue by putting the debate of legalising Cannabis oil for medicinal purposes through the houses of parliament, which is expected to be successful so that the countless other children who have had to obtain their treatment from Canada have no permissible recourse, seeing that one individual has been given the right to take the illegal pomade.
But as a farcically flavoured side note many are contesting the approach they are taking to pay for the service which the tax payers already fund, by paying more tax. It was confirmed yesterday that some of the £250 million that we currently pay to the European Union, (not the £350 million that ministers claimed) will go toward it and the rest will be taking out of working peoples pockets. Not what the people were promised by the remain campaign back in 2016. But the sun rises on one irrefutable fact that many will be stunted to ignore, that the members of parliament, (from whichever party they hold allegiance to) are foolish to consider that simply throwing money at the social legacy of Aneurin Bevan, (Nye Bevan to the rest of you) is part of the reason the National Health Service will continue to fall into the mire created by bureaucratic organisation. It needs a reformation, not refunding. An over-hall of the wages paid at the top rung and urgent restructure at the bottom so that Junior Dr’s and Nurses will be given the credence they deserve, a responsibility that both Labour and the Conservatives have on their hands. Because otherwise people like young Billy Caldwell will forever be ignored by the service that was originally designed to protect and not impair.
The Musings of Redmoor 