Ros's Soap Box

I apologise in advance as this is me jumping up and down on my soapbox again and ranting very loudly.....

Well yet again I am stunned by new proposals for the NHS, but surely this time they have reached the absolute limit of total human goofiness. The plans are for Doctors and local health centres to survey their patients and then those with a 'sedentary lifestyle' will be given free dance leassons or other activities! There will be no extra money allocated for these classes, they will be funded by the already over stretched NHS trust budgets. I really think that whoever's idea this is must be totally mad, and for once I agree with Ann Widicombe who calls this scheme 'ludicrous'. The idea that people are being given free dance lessons whilst people suffering from Cancer or Alzheimers are being denied life saving drugs because of the cost is quite frankly disgusting. This implies that obesity and unhealthy lifestyles have the same importance in the NHS as genuine illness and injury. Everyone is free to choose what they eat and how they live and I do not see why the genuinely ill should have to loose out on drugs and services to pay for dance lessons for people who are not ill, but who have an unhealhty lifestyle that they are unwilling to change.

If people need to take excercise they are free to do so, and should be encouraged to. They could simply go for a brisk walk everyday which is free and would not cost anyone anything, or they could be refered to a dietician and physio to recomend changes to their diet and lifestyle that would be better for their health. But the idea that the NHS is responsible for keeping people fit and paying for them to have the privlege, is ludicrous. I will not be recieving free dance lessons of seeing a personal trainer, I pay for my own dance lessons and my drug prescriptions myself thank you! I could easily argue that as I have CF I need these activities to help my lung capactiy. Not wishing to sound mean, but if I don't qualify for these freebies why should these other people, who as far as I can see are just lazy and do not eat properly or excercise enough be getting handouts at the NHS's expense???

The NHS is there to care for the sick and injured not to baby sit the country's lifestyle. It is already overstretched to the point of collapse, and they are closing wards, whole hospitals and nurses and doctors and essential staff are being laid off. Surely the NHS have better things to spend their limited money on than dance lessons for lazy people??? It is about time the government stopped trying to nanny us all, and stopped trying to run the NHS like it was a business to make money, and let it get back to its main function, that of caring for its patients. I am now going to go and write a leter to my MP, please do the same as the NHS will completely collapse and many ill people will suffer if this sort of idiotic idea is allowed to continue.