An untrumpeted change
James Forsyth 7:26pm
John Rentoul rightly flags up the story in this morning’s FT that about 100,000 NHS patients have gone private and had the state pick up the tab, the private hospitals have had to agree to do the work at the NHS price. For those of us who would like to see the NHS move towards a model where the state pays for healthcare but it is provided by a whole panoply of providers, this is an encouraging step. This kind of consumer-focused reform is hard to reverse.
The story, as John notes, hasn’t got as much coverage as it should. John blames this on the press’s lack of interest in policy stories. But it is also the case that the Brown government, which is currently slowing down if not reversing Blair’s NHS reforms, hasn’t chosen to trumpet this story.
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Holly ......
October 26th, 2009 7:42pm Report this commentThis is EXACTLY what the Conservatives get slated over by you bloody lot!!!!
When they suggest it it's pulled to pieces by the MSM as the nasty Tories PRIVATISING the NHS!!!!
When the Labour party do it the MSM laud it from the bloody rafters as being fresh,new innovative!!!!
YOU...the MSM...make me sick!!!!
TRAITORS TO YOUR CUSTOMERS.
TrevorsDen
October 26th, 2009 9:22pm Report this comment"is provided by a whole panoply of providers"
Easy to say but when a provider for anything serious has to invest gawd knows how much to provide it - then its not so easy to work out a realistic solution in practice.
Look - you your wife your parents your children might need health treatment some day. Almost certainly will. No amount of fancy posturing is going to take away the massive infrastructure of beds equipment and trained staff of the NHS.
EG
"some 4.2 million surgical operations are carried out every year in England alone"
Thats just surgical - in England
Against this 100,000 is small potatoes.
Why when you me - we all - will need it, do you and others want to destroy it?
Nothing in this world is perfect - not even the editorial board of The Spectator. So the NHS needs proper resources and efficient management.
Lets not get carried away.
http://www.hesonline.nhs.uk/Ease/servlet/ContentServer?siteID=1937&categoryID=889
Dirty Euro
October 26th, 2009 9:39pm Report this commentIt is wrong and inefficient the french system is in reality state run, except the doctors are private the equipment is state owned, and it is the best in the world. The USA has private system and does rubbish.
A state system of health care is better end of story.
Irene
October 26th, 2009 9:47pm Report this commentI agree with Holly and some.
Also I am fed with with Rentaul's obsession with Blier!
Martyn Rowe
October 26th, 2009 10:48pm Report this commentWasn't this the exact policy that Michael Howard put forward at the 2005 election but then ran away from as soon as Labour shouted him down as an evil privatiser who wanted to get rich people operations from NHS cash?*
I hope the Tories are braver in explaining and persuading their policies at the next election. Not running away as soon as Labour use the politics of 'Tories for the rich' fear tactics.
*I'm pretty sure Howard's policy was to alleviate waiting lists by allowing people who could afford it to go private if they agreed to pay for half of the costs. Benefiting those who couldnt afford it by shortening the NHS waiting lists.
It was a perfectly sensible and reasonable idea. Therefore screamed at by Labour, even though Tony Blair probably agreed with it.
gisby
October 27th, 2009 12:03am Report this commentHolly has lost me, Know am getting on a bit, but what is MSM?
John Moss
October 27th, 2009 8:02am Report this commentIf Major's administration had had the courage to make GP fundholding compulsory for all GPs and not an option, we would probably have achieved a far wider spread before 1997 of this sort of commissioning rather than providing and the NHS would not have had to go back ten years under Frank Dobson, before recovering some ground under Milburn.
That Brown and whoever his Health Secretary is this week are rowing back further on this is disasterous. NHS providers are finding their monopoly challenged and they are having to justify their funding against private competitiors. We, the patient, get better service as a consequence.
I was referrred for an X-ray three weeks ago. I got called by the Diagnostic Centre three days later, went and had the X-ray two days after that and the results were e-mailed to my GP that evening. The NHS appointment I was offered was six weeks from today!
strapworld
October 27th, 2009 9:10am Report this commentAs it happens I am sitting here awaiting a call from my doctor's surgery. I believe I may have that swine of a flu!
That I am feeling ten degrees under does not alter the shock and inner fear I feel in that I actually agree with trevors Den.
May God have mercy on my soul.
Martyn Rowe
October 27th, 2009 9:28am Report this commentGisby. MSM....? I think Holly means main-stream media...
TrevorsDen
October 27th, 2009 10:01am Report this commentYou and UKIP, strapworld - what am I doing wrong.
GP fundholding was overwhelmingly based on doctors choosing which NHS hospital to send a patient to. The private sector influence was minimal.
It amazes me the numbers of people who are willing to play ducks and drakes with the system which they and their family rely on. 'Going private' is all very well until you have something wrong with you - then you will find they dump you back on the NHS.
I do not approach this from an idealogical point of view - a system of compulsory health insurance might be the right way (it might not) but it is not what we have here. And it would be crazy to throw all that we have now up in to the air and hope it all falls down intact.
What we all have to realise is that the cost of health care is going up. In Germany fewer people can afford the optional top ups they pay to get 'better' care. I suspect costs are a problem in France as well.
So our NHS will continue to be overstretched, its all a question of where you make your compromises.
Holly ......
October 27th, 2009 7:42pm Report this commentJohn Moss.
GP 2nd Oct-could not shake my cold.
X-Ray,blood tests-2nd Oct.Local hospital.
Results 8th Oct. Over the phone GP Surgery nurse.
Follow up X-Ray 29th Oct.
Yours..NINE WEEKS?
Hubby fobbed off for eighteen months with 'chest infections'..diagnosed with terminal cancer end of last year..radiation therapy every day for three weeks & two lots of chemo....for now he is champion, you would honestly never know he was so ill at the start of the year...next scan 10th.
Nov.Same GP yet sooooo slow.
Depends on the day I suppose.
ps.If you ever give to charity may I suggest Mcmillan cancer...they are FANTASTIC!!!!
They helped us financially in the first few weeks....They are so,great,when your head is mush.
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