Tuesday 21 February 2012

Off the fence


It has to be admitted that I have not commented much on the NHS reforms, unlike many of my blogging colleagues. This is not because I am disinterested, rather I have seen it as primarily a matter for primary care, and in this I have been remiss. It has now become clear to me that these reforms are simply part of a broader strategy to sell off the profitable parts of the NHS to friends and benefactors of the ruling party. This is not new in principal. I remember full well 120 million doses of swine flu vaccine being bought by the last government when realistically maybe one sixth of that would actually be administered. There were allegedly connections between Tony Blair and the owner of the company involved. 

But that possible level of corruption is dwarfed by what is now proposed. And the brazen manner in which this is being pushed in the face of such broad opposition speaks of a contempt for the electorate and the medical profession that is breathtaking. This contempt is epitomised by those invited by the government to discuss the reforms this week. Bearing in mind that these reforms are first and foremost reforms to primary care it is inexcusable that the Royal College of General Practitioners was excluded, and extraordinary that the Royal College of Dinosaurs, sorry, Surgeons was included. Lansley has shown from the start that he is not prepared to give audience to anyone who might disagree with him. He has blatantly lied about support within the medical profession and given credence to low life like Michael Dixon. Talk about scraping the barrel.

To my mind anyone who genuinely believed in what he was proposing would be prepared to argue his case passionately, not to the converted, but to those who are not convinced. A refusal to engage with these people speaks of weakness, dishonesty and deviousness.

I may not know entirely what Lansley’s motives and deep intentions are. But the fact that he is being so subversive leads me to doubt that he is up to any good.

Like most of my colleagues throughout the profession I have come, possibly belatedly, to the conclusion that these reforms will be a disaster.

5 comments:

  1. This is what government does when it gets control of healthcare. I am sure that Langly's abomination was on the cards for the NHS a very long time before he became a household name. This is why as an American, I don't want to see us go down that road. I believe in everyone being able to have affordable access to health care and I hate corporations. But I really, really don't trust government. I am voting for Ron Paul because I want to see healthcare become affordable for all and I also want greedy corporations and dishonest oversized government completely out of the picture, especially when they are married to eachother.

    Look what they are doing to you guys. They have got you people completely dependent on government for health care. You don't have employers that are required by law to provide employees with heath insurance. Your taxes are too high and wages too low to allow the average person in your country to be able to afford their own private medical plan. That comes along with having nationalised medicine. They have put you in this position by promising free at point of delivery heath care for all. They have got their people dependent on the system. And now they are pulling out the rug from under you.

    Anyone who can't see that this was the plan all along is delusional. Government is married to their profit focused greedy corporate overloads. Both need to go.

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  2. the a&e charge nurse22 February 2012 at 17:34

    Hang on anonymous, you are not advocating support the world's most expensive health care system are you?

    The US spends 17% of GDP on health care, not far of twice that consumed by the NHS - yet despite the staggering expense unpaid health bills constitute by far the biggest proportion of americans who find themselves bankrupt.

    A joint research study by Harvard Law School and Harvard Medical School studied bankruptcy files in five federal bankruptcy courts in California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. They reviewed 1,771 personal bankruptcy files and conducted in-depth interviews with 931 of the individual filing personal bankruptcy.
    Conducted in 2001 and reported in 2005, the study concluded that 2 million American, including 700,000 children are affected by medically driven bankruptcies each year.
    http://www.examiner.com/health-care-in-national/harvard-study-shows-unpaid-medical-bills-is-the-leading-cause-of-bankruptcy-the-u-s

    Yet despite its voracious and highly bureaucratic nature there are still significant swathes of the population who cannot access adequate health services (due to insurance issues) - now I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that those worse off are probably poor and black?
    http://www.rand.org/pubs/corporate_pubs/2005/RAND_CP484.1.pdf

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  3. You have the wrong end of the stick anon. It is precisely because we value the NHS so much that we are opposed to Langleys plan, which is the first stop on the road to a US style of healthcare. It should be a source of utter shame that the richest country in the world is so unwilling to look after it's sick.

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  4. US style healthcare is corporate based with some government thrown in. I think I made it clear that I don't support either evil corporations or evil government having any involvement in healthcare.

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  5. You still trust government and corporations after what langsley is doing to you????? They are going to use your Tax money to make their buddies at the corporations rich!

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