Last week, in the UK, the NHS (National Health Service) was held to ransom by malware stolen from the NSA (National Security Agency), in America. The Nissan car plant in Sunderland was also hit by the hackers.
The virus was unleashed across the world and spread at unprecedented speed. So far, more than 99 countries have been affected, with more than 57,000 victims. The virus, known as WannaCry, and variants of that name, has spread itself across the world, using email.
The ransomware software encrypts files. It then asks for a digital ransom of US$300, to be paid by Bitcoin, before control is safely returned.
Today, let’s talk about healthcare in Britain. The country has the National Health Service (NHS). There are also many private healthcare hospitals where patients can go to be treated.
The NHS is a wonderful thing for the people of Britain. It is though currently under enormous strain. This is because of all the migrants from Europe and beyond who also use it. One example of this is in maternity wards. Many are full of European and Russian speaking women who use the NHS for free. Once their British baby is born they claim all the benefits that go with it!
Patients have died in Britain because British MPs failed to ensure foreign doctors working out-of-hours shifts can speak English properly. The matter hit the headlines recently in the British press. Alarm bells were sounded by some senior British MPs who stressed: “The next government must ‘as a matter of extreme urgency’ demand changes to a 2005 EU directive governing the free movement of labour in an effort to prevent more deaths at the hands of incompetent foreign GPs.”
The report criticised NHS bodies for failing to use other vetting powers. MPs said it was wrong that Britain was sticking rigidly to EU rules, which outlaw checks on overseas GPs’ language skills – while France openly flouted them. The Commons Health select committee also poured scorn on the Government for agreeing to GPs’ demands for a lucrative contract which makes it too easy for them to opt out of responsibility for out-of-hours care. This has forced the NHS to bring in doctors from abroad.
