This new drug to prevent those who have unprotected sex from getting the HIV virus.

Free contraception is one of the excellent things the NHS has done. To lose that would be a hugely retrograde step.

Would it? The well off could pay. We never used the NHS to get contraception. We paid. We weren't well off, by a long way.

And I only ended up with three kids. Surprisingly.

I wish we could "bring on the drug to prevent lung cancer" and many, many other drugs to combat/prevent numerous debilitating illnesses. I think most people with any sense of compassion would "care about kids struggling to breathe" but how does that correlate with the funding of a drug to prevent HIV. Are they mutually exclusive?

You actually want, and would be happy to finance, a drug to allow smokers free rein to smoke as much as they like?

Bit odd that.

No. Of course they are not mutually exclusive. The whole nation knows about the bottomless pit that is the NHS.

jbf you were the one who said "bring on the drug to prevent lung cancer" and I stated "I wish we could". There is many a person today suffering from the effects of passive smoking. I don't think anyone should be overly judgemental regarding the ill health of others. Nothing odd about it.

I am well aware the NHS is not a bottomless pit but who gives anyone the right to prioritise which section of society takes priority.

Read all of the post. The bit about smokers.

I'm not being "judgemental". Well, perhaps about fag smokers.

and of course "anyone's un-self disciplined lifestyle"

Oh yes. That too.

Pleasure before need seems to be the order of the day.

"I am well aware the NHS is not a bottomless pit but who gives anyone the right to prioritise which section of society takes priority"

You may not consider that anyone has the "right" but in the real world, someone somewhere has to, and they will never please everyone.

"He who is without sin" and all that...........

Oh for God's sake.

(not you GandT)

I can't be bothered with some of this stuff.

I am so thick I only realised the other day what your name was SueDonim
To be fair, I was pronouncing it wrongly, putting the emphasis on the middle syllable!!

The NHS governing body, including its sub-committees and the clinical commissioning executive make the decisions as to how healthcare resources are best used. So no one individual has that right or responsibility.

Jalima

nhsfunding.info/underfunded/key-funding-facts/10-years-of-record-low-funding-rises/

NHS is not a bottomless pit, but it is not being financed as much as it should be.
If it was, maybe this problem would be solved.

nhsfunding.info/sign-in-support/#

I do get there in the end Soo*Donn*Imm

However much money we put into the NHS, there will always be some drug or procedure that is beyond their budget, I do however a free that it is currently underfunded.
I thought it was pretty obvious that no single individual makes financial decisions in the NHS, hardly thought it needed saying.

"Blue sky, warm sun. Birdsong, wind whispers. Softly waving grass, long enough to hide all sins and pleasures. A day to welcome sleep. And love.

Cool hands on warm bodies. Shivers, tremblings. Sweet breath on faces, hands on thighs and breasts, sweeter still.

The day cools. The watchful sun turns his face.

In the growing dusk, Karen and Amy walk home. Together."

I wrote that a couple of years back. In the Writers Room forum on Gransnet.

Yeah. Definitely homophobic, me.