The NHS - not fit for purpose...
11 February 2013
.... How much longer are the British people going to put up with, by the developed world standards, a second rate health service?
.... How much longer are the British people going to put up with, by the developed world standards, a second rate health service?
That is exactly what the 'revered and worshipped' NHS provides. The repeated failures of the NHS, the latest being the shocking Mid-Staffs scandal, are only the tip of the iceberg.
The NHS is a failing system and no government has the courage to do what is needed with it. Get rid of it.
A monolithic state funded health system is not the only way for health-care to be provided 'free at the point of delivery'. This could also be true of an insurance funded state-backed system with privatised medical facilities.
The problem in this country is the status of the NHS as some kind of god-figure. Any suggestion by a politician of even the mildest reforms are met by accusations and claims. For as long as that is the case things will never get better.
No-one wants a USA style system in the UK but there are other excellent models for a new British health system we can follow in Europe if only we had the guts to admit that the NHS is a failure and needs to be replaced.
The British people deserve better than the NHS is able to provide.
- I have nothing to sell in this at all, except wanting a better health service.
It is people like you who are preventing the British people from getting a better health service by dropping the NHS. - People like me? How nice of you to say so. (I trust there is evidence?)
People, I suppose, whether British or other, deserve the best there is, even if we confine ourselves to talking about the NHS.
In racking my brain to discover the least spark of hope that a Privatised Health Service could possibly do any better, I cannot escape from the thought that pecuniary advantage would trump medical need over and over again.
The population can moan and carp and plead and protest, at the shortcomings of the NHS to the NHS itself or to many levels of Government, and they can all think that such gets them nowhere, but that is never the whole story. It is their NHS.
On the other hand, the world and his brother can moan louder, protest more vociferously and beat themselves black and blue about the perceived shortcomings of any Private Concern and be fobbed-off with the well practised line, well practised here, that such matters are the concern of shareholders ONLY!
"wanting a better health service" This is a meaningless statement and, I fear, intentionally so. - Tom - you, like all on the left, have a massive blind spot when it comes to the public sector and the NHS specially.
The left have blocked any effective discussion about alternative health structures to the NHS by crying foul at every suggestion of new thinking.
Your problem and that of the left is that you consider the NHS structure more important than patient experience and outcomes.
That is the opposite to what we need.
Patient experience and outcomes should be the 'bee all and end all', in fact the only thing that matters. Part of that patient experience of course should be the availability of the very best health care to everyone in the UK regardless of income and status. It does not matter if the cost of care is covered by insurance, it does not matter if the care is provided by the private sector either. As long as it is the best and as long as it is available to all.
Compare the NHS to the medical services in other EU countries, France, Germany and so on. These have not adopted failing structures like the NHS and are delivering better outcomes. Have you experienced the health services there? Far superior to what we have.
The big question is where is the outrage from the left about public sector failing?
What have those half-baked fools of this 38 degree campaign got to say about Mid Staffs? - barry's last post reminds me of the thread on the subject, party politics more important than getting a better health service for all.
- "Health Statistics > Total expenditure as % of GDP..."
USA is top, the UK is equal 19th...
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_tot_exp_as_of_gdp-health-total-expenditure-gdp
Why, Barry, you knock-on about Politics, and Party Politics at that, is beyond me and beyond the necessary scope of any discussion of the future of Health Provision in the UK. It's more about outcomes (as that is the parlance) and about money. But as we spend so little it has somehow got to be all about the private sector getting it's grubby hands on what money there is and what assets there are.
The perceived downturn in the NHS is shadowed closely by the introduction of private personal gain. The tick-box targets introduced to help with the perception of waiting lists etc. was accompanied by monetary reward. How the wholesale introduction of the profit-motive is the answer to all prayers is evidenced by the certainty of gain by the privateers more than by any evidence that outcomes will improve.
This march down the wrong path has seen strides taken by the Political Left and Right. That, for the present, Parliament is set to be filled by groups that agree on this in no way makes this the correct way to go. - Tom. No mention of Party here. An attack on the left such as this is not confined to one Party.
Your hatred of the private sector comes across as frequently as your misconceived faith in the public sector.
The NHS problem is its structure and you cannot correct these structural failings without rethinking the whole of the UK health provision. This is nothing to do with what is spent, there has been a huge increase in spending that has showed few, if any, benefits. We still lag other western countries in our health outcomes.
I am fortunate, I can afford private medical cover and, as such, will get treated at the Chaucer or another private hospital if needed.
I want to see the benefits of private sector health provision opened up to everyone regardless of their personal affordability. In Europe there is not this ideological divide over health care that we have here and they are better off because of it.
The 'left', which clearly includes you, would rather stop private medical provision to drive standards for everyone down to the NHS level. That is a matter of pure ideology, an expression of your hate for the private sector.
For me it is about getting the best healthcare for everyone and driving up outcomes to the levels of the highest in Europe and the world. - I have said this before and no doubt I shall say it again. Nobody has ever satisfactorily explained to me why people who are well able to pay something towards their medical care should receive it totally free of charge.
- It is a lonely place, this peak where flies the flag of true concern for the well-being of others?
What about world peace, and anything else a beauty queen can think of?
There is never a crack in the fabric of the NHS, but the dry wedge of monetary reward is hammered home and wetted and rewetted with platitudes.
I see the WHO are involved in bringing Health Service Outcomes together across Europe...
http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/Health-systems/health-systems-governance/publications/2012/health-systems-performance-assessment.-a-tool-for-health-governance-in-the-21st-century
"A performance framework of the whole health system
is a helpful tool and separates the health system into
manageable parts. The framework illustrates
relationships and links between areas of the health
system. It also identifies key forces outside the health
system, such as social determinants and other
sectors of government."
This looks as if it might well suit the NHS as it is. - This makes as much sense as the jargon-laden pages of the WHO's article.
Что можно делать при помощи ОДСЗ?
Мы попросили людей, обладающих практическим опытом применения ОДСЗ, рассказать нам о том, чего они смогли добиться с помощью этого инструмента. Ниже приведены их ответы. ОДСЗ помогает: - O dear, the system doesn't recognise Cyrillic text.
- If you can't think, think cant?
P.S.
I managed to c&p a portion from it. - a nice touch of manderin peter,
Fess-up Baz, you have something to sell.
You have something to sell, and yet can find little to say about your product.
"Any suggestion by a politician of even the mildest reforms are met by accusations and claims."
The above is two things rolled into one, both nonsense.
-Every suggestion by a Politician is to be met by distrust and disbelief. This is the very basis of our systems of Government and Law.
-...and claims. The NHS has not, in any way shape or form, got to where it is today without the 'assistance' of Governments over the years. The present issue of Mid-Staffs is yet another instance of Government 'help'. This is no mere claim.
[as soon as you can fix the graphic above I'll come back for another stab at your drive(l) to increase your business]