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The Conservative Party have been in power for 12 years. When they gained power they pursued a policy of "austerity" to reduce the size of the govt and local gov
by buro9 4y ago
The Conservative Party have been in power for 12 years. When they gained power they pursued a policy of "austerity" to reduce the size of the govt and local govt, reduce the funding of nationally funded things, and to replace such govt owned things with "public private partnerships". This can be seen everywhere from social care (private care homes), schools (academy schools), transport (where area contracts are bid for by private companies), etc.
With health specifically the goal is to have more privately owned profit making companies in the NHS. The NHS as it is constructed doesn't allow for this. But for the Conservatives this opportunity for them and their backers. For the public, there is a national pride in the NHS.
So we entered the pandemic with an already under-funded and stretched health care system.
Much to the chagrin of those in charge though... this has not led to any calls for privatisation. Nor has it led to a boom in people taking out private health care cover.
It turns out that the British stiff upper lip response to something they're nationally proud of is that they'd rather die than embrace health privatisation. So we're in uncharted territory... the playbook that had allowed the privatisation of almost everything else isn't working now, it's just killing people.
- gadders 4y ago>> The Conservative Party have been in power for 12 years. When they gained power they pursued a policy of "austerity" to reduce the size of the govt and local govt, reduce the funding of nationally funded things, and to replace such govt owned things with "public private partnerships". You seem to be missing a bit of context here - this was after the Global Financial Crisis when even the outgoing Labour Chancellor of the Exchequor admitted there was no money left https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/17/liam-byrne-note-successor https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/17/liam-byrne-... >> So we entered the pandemic with an already under-funded and stretched health care system. It's 12% of GDP currently, which isn't that out of step globally.
- ben_w 4y agoTo riff off the Oscar Wilde quote, half a decade of no growth may be regarded as misfortune, one and a half decades looks like carelessness.
- baobob 4y agoFolk talking about austerity as a tory thing are going to be in for a monster shock if energy prices persist through the next elections, and when they realize the size of the Covid bill vs the GFC bill. It may very well be Labour sitting as the final nails are driven into the NHS, just by sheer luck of timing
- gambiting 4y ago
- squidbeak 4y agoMuch of the Covid expense was paid for with newly created money through Quantitative Easing. Even the unlikeliest of Conservatives seem to be waking up to Modern Monetary Theory [1] [1] https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1554361779857362945 https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1554361779857362945
- ben_w 4y agoThe end of the NHS is unlikely to be caused by money or lack thereof, given the NHS was founded while the UK was still suffering the economic consequences of the pyrrhic victory of WW2 — food rationing was still a thing, and was only completely ended six years after the NHS was founded, just in time for the Suez crisis to bring it back for a few more months.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- DanBC 4y ago> the NHS as it is constructed doesn't allow for this. This is simply untrue. (What is Livewell South West?) We've had private provision of NHS services for years and the Lansley reforms explicitly embed privatisation (state funded private provision) in the NHS. Commissioners are forbidden by the 2012 law from preferring NHS providers over NHS providers. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/7/section/75/enacted https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/7/section/75/enact... We have a lot of private provision of NHS services (all GP practices are private providers!) and it just doesn't work.
- trappist 4y agoNIH budget has increased over 40% since 2015. https://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/pdfs/FY22/spending-hist/Mechanism%20Detail%20for%20Total%20NIH%20FY%202000%20-%20FY%202021%20(V2).pdf https://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/pdfs/FY22/spending-hist/Me...
- pjc50 4y agoThat set of figures is for the US and therefore completely irrelevant?
- dekhn 4y agoalso it's a research institution, not a medical care facility.
- nobodyandproud 4y agoNIH is not NHS.
- nobodyandproud 4y ago> It turns out that the British stiff upper lip response to something they're nationally proud of is that they'd rather die than embrace health privatisation. So we're in uncharted territory... the playbook Good for you guys. Basic healthcare should be a public service to maximize most coverage at a reasonable quality level. Not privatized to get the most money for the least amount of service, which is the practice of virtually every long-lived business.