3 ms·

Yes, but it is prohibitively expensive for most people (ironically because the market is quite small...everyone tries to go through the NHS). The level of unde

Yes, but it is prohibitively expensive for most people (ironically because the market is quite small...everyone tries to go through the NHS). The level of underfunding is, however, such that mental health providers are a huge part of the private health sector: Priory Group is a very big one. Another factor is that a lot of training for psychologists is paid by the NHS, and funding for training has been going down everywhere (even in Scotland, which has a left-wing govt running the NHS). It is just a resources problem. Even in the private sector, there isn't a supply response to higher prices. Ironically, the UK has lots of people who do undergrad Psychology, just none of them actually go on to practice because entry is so tightly controlled (for some reason, the NHS in Scotland is attempting to train nurses to do psychology with a couple of days training...that is going as well as you can imagine).

sgt 5y ago
If the NHS can't keep up, the private sector needs to be partially subsidized, in my opinion.
- oportunityastro 5y ago
  That is already happening. The NHS is paying the private sector to perform operations due to long wait times (it will take half a decade for the waiting list to go down)...but these are usually the same NHS doctors, working in the same hospitals...they are just being paid 3x the price, it is the worst of all worlds (doctors are an extremely powerful lobbying group in the UK, they have tightly controlled entry to the industry so you have doctors making base £150-200k part-time on the NHS, then topping up with another £200-300k with private sector work...it is chaos). I understand no-one in the US wants to hear it...the UK system doesn't work (fully public health doesn't work, almost no countries in Europe with good healthcare have it, Australia is very similar to the UK, introduced private healthcare...their results are miles, miles, miles ahead).
  - sgt 5y ago
    Here in South Africa the private healthcare system is excellent. There's also public health care which is good in some places, atrocious in other. If you've got medical insurance you're good.

sgt 5y ago

If the NHS can't keep up, the private sector needs to be partially subsidized, in my opinion.

oportunityastro 5y ago
That is already happening. The NHS is paying the private sector to perform operations due to long wait times (it will take half a decade for the waiting list to go down)...but these are usually the same NHS doctors, working in the same hospitals...they are just being paid 3x the price, it is the worst of all worlds (doctors are an extremely powerful lobbying group in the UK, they have tightly controlled entry to the industry so you have doctors making base £150-200k part-time on the NHS, then topping up with another £200-300k with private sector work...it is chaos). I understand no-one in the US wants to hear it...the UK system doesn't work (fully public health doesn't work, almost no countries in Europe with good healthcare have it, Australia is very similar to the UK, introduced private healthcare...their results are miles, miles, miles ahead).
- sgt 5y ago
  Here in South Africa the private healthcare system is excellent. There's also public health care which is good in some places, atrocious in other. If you've got medical insurance you're good.