November 29
2004
Creative destruction
» Posted on November 29, 2004 11:50 PM » Category: Health
Moving 15% of procedures to private sector will wreck NHS

And the problem is?


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Have you noticed just how many people (for which read Labour party hacks) have written on the www.proudofbritain.org.uk site that the thing they are most proud of about Britain is the NHS?

Ross Seymour from Oxford writes, "For so many reasons I'm proud to be British. Our ingrained tolerance and sense of fairness. Our amazing diversity. Our courage and optimism. Our schools and hospitals that, for all they're decried by the Tories, provide the very best education and social healthcare in the world"

Presumably social healthcare is rather different to the sort where people get treated and recover and that sort of thing?

Stated by: Mike Wood on November 30, 2004 9:55 AM

I thought the comment by Prof Pollock outlined the 'problem' quite well: " The private sector had the ability to "cherry pick" more routine cases, leaving very expensive treatments behind in the NHS and undermining the core function of the NHS, which is risk pooling."

Stated by: Shooting Parrots on November 30, 2004 11:44 AM

How do you get to be a professor in the health policy unit at UCL?
Clearly intelligence is not a prime requirement.

This woman starts from the premise that the NHS is sacrosanct and that it must be defended. She doesn't even mention the poor old patient - their interests are clearly secondary to those of the NHS. She's most worried that even "small movements of patients out of NHS trusts" would push hospitals into financial crisis. Nothing about whether it's better for those patients.
Classic producer interest (but then what else would you expect from the BMA?)

The worrying thing is that, if you were to challenge her on this point, she would almost certainy defend her opinion by aligning patient interest with producer interest - a universally discredited idea. I ask once again, how did she get to be part of a health policy unit?

It was also interesting to read that "risk pooling" is the "core function of the NHS". So nothing to do with providing medical services then.

Stated by: HJHJ on December 1, 2004 11:14 AM

The NHS doesn't "pool" risk at all. By setting the premiums on risk to be the same regardless of lifestyle, the NHS actively encourages poor health choices.

Any party that allows people to opt out of the NHS risk encouragement pool will get my vote.

For the health of the British people destroy coercion funded beurocrat rationed healthcare.

Stated by: Rob Read on December 5, 2004 5:41 PM
Stated by: gwheg on March 16, 2006 3:27 PM
Stated by: art on April 13, 2006 8:07 PM
Stated by: bundlebox on July 15, 2006 11:13 PM
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