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One of the issues in the UK that is pushing these changes through is wait times and understaffing. Unless you have an emergency or something life-and-death seri

One of the issues in the UK that is pushing these changes through is wait times and understaffing. Unless you have an emergency or something life-and-death serious you might as well forget about it. The people don’t like it and wanted change, which is why the Torries and Brexit was voted for. My mother was recommended to visit the hospital by an optician for a more in-depth check related to glaucoma. She ended up having to wait 9 months for her appointment... I don’t think the general public want to see it privatised though, it’s just the governments are pushing it through as their agenda to avoid having to raise taxes (corporate and income tax in the UK is on the low side compared to other Western-European countries).

DanBC 9y ago
GP asked > Is anyone in the western world that's not leaning conservative looking to dismantle their healthcare system? It's important to be honest about this: the conservative party have made the decision to de-fund the NHS and in real terms they've considerably cut funding for the NHS. This is even more true when you look at the changes to the NHS and the collapse in social care. the changes were splitting out public health (eg, sexual health, drug and alcohol rehab, suicide prevention) to local authorities. Collapse in social care was caused by defunding LAs.
- lovich 9y ago
  That's a tried and true method from any group that wants to get rid of some system and then gets in charge of said system. Just make it impossible for it to succeed, for instance by decreasing their funding or adding onerous beuracracy that makes everything run slower. After that you can just point to how the system is running poorly as an excuse for dismantling it
vixen99 9y ago
Fly to Romania or Hungary etc., and she'll likely get almost immediate attention at an Austrian/German/US-funded state-of-the-art private clinic at a fraction of the UK private cost.
ZenoArrow 9y ago
Please don't bring Brexit into the NHS debate, the reasons for Brexit were broad, and the debate over the future of the NHS is already complicated enough. That aside, the push for the privatisation of the NHS has been going on for a long time. For example "Britain's Biggest Enterprise: Ideas for Radical Reform of the NHS" was a policy essay written by Oliver Letwin and John Redwood in 1988. You can read it here: https://www.cps.org.uk/files/reports/original/111027171245-BritainsBiggestEnterprise1988.pdf https://www.cps.org.uk/files/reports/original/111027171245-B... . It sets out a group of suggestions for moving the responsibility of the NHS away from the government and towards the private sector. It's quite interesting reading it now (it's only 20 pages), as despite key problems with each approach being identified back in 1988, we've ended up with similar policies being pushed forward in 2012. I think this boils down to the blindness of ideology, if you're determined to break up public healthcare institutions, it doesn't matter if your reforms lead to a more effective healthcare system or not. As an example of this, PFI has been used heavily since New Labour came to power in 1997 (and by the Conservatives that followed them) to fund the building of new hospitals and schools. To explain, PFI is effectively funding public building works by private, for-profit loan companies. Before PFI, these building works were funded by government at low interest rates. To give some idea of the burden of PFI on the NHS, it's been estimated to drain £2 billion a year from NHS funds. If you want to reduce NHS waiting times, I'd suggest pushing for scrapping PFI would be a good start. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/nhs/11748960/The-PFI-hospitals-costing-NHS-2bn-every-year.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/nhs/11748960/The-PFI-hospita...

DanBC 9y ago

GP asked > Is anyone in the western world that's not leaning conservative looking to dismantle their healthcare system? It's important to be honest about this: the conservative party have made the decision to de-fund the NHS and in real terms they've considerably cut funding for the NHS. This is even more true when you look at the changes to the NHS and the collapse in social care. the changes were splitting out public health (eg, sexual health, drug and alcohol rehab, suicide prevention) to local authorities. Collapse in social care was caused by defunding LAs.

lovich 9y ago
That's a tried and true method from any group that wants to get rid of some system and then gets in charge of said system. Just make it impossible for it to succeed, for instance by decreasing their funding or adding onerous beuracracy that makes everything run slower. After that you can just point to how the system is running poorly as an excuse for dismantling it

vixen99 9y ago

Fly to Romania or Hungary etc., and she'll likely get almost immediate attention at an Austrian/German/US-funded state-of-the-art private clinic at a fraction of the UK private cost.

ZenoArrow 9y ago

Please don't bring Brexit into the NHS debate, the reasons for Brexit were broad, and the debate over the future of the NHS is already complicated enough. That aside, the push for the privatisation of the NHS has been going on for a long time. For example "Britain's Biggest Enterprise: Ideas for Radical Reform of the NHS" was a policy essay written by Oliver Letwin and John Redwood in 1988. You can read it here: https://www.cps.org.uk/files/reports/original/111027171245-BritainsBiggestEnterprise1988.pdf https://www.cps.org.uk/files/reports/original/111027171245-B... . It sets out a group of suggestions for moving the responsibility of the NHS away from the government and towards the private sector. It's quite interesting reading it now (it's only 20 pages), as despite key problems with each approach being identified back in 1988, we've ended up with similar policies being pushed forward in 2012. I think this boils down to the blindness of ideology, if you're determined to break up public healthcare institutions, it doesn't matter if your reforms lead to a more effective healthcare system or not. As an example of this, PFI has been used heavily since New Labour came to power in 1997 (and by the Conservatives that followed them) to fund the building of new hospitals and schools. To explain, PFI is effectively funding public building works by private, for-profit loan companies. Before PFI, these building works were funded by government at low interest rates. To give some idea of the burden of PFI on the NHS, it's been estimated to drain £2 billion a year from NHS funds. If you want to reduce NHS waiting times, I'd suggest pushing for scrapping PFI would be a good start. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/nhs/11748960/The-PFI-hospitals-costing-NHS-2bn-every-year.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/nhs/11748960/The-PFI-hospita...