Evidence not ideology

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7522.964

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The BMJ should take a position on the evidence about privatisation

Allyson M Pollock, professor, health policy and health service research (allyson.pollock@ucl.ac.uk)

School of Public Policy, University College London, London WC1H 9QU

EDITOR—The argument is that the BMJ shouldn't have a position on the privatisation of health care and the NHS, but it should simply be a forum to allow the issues to be debated.1

But neutrality on this issue is wrong. It means abdicating the responsibility of a scientific publication to weigh evidence and argument based on evidence. A very large accumulated body of evidence underpins the establishment and development of a publicly owned and operated health system in the UK, evidence that advocates of its abandonment have yet to supplant with valid evidence of their own.

The fairest way of funding health services is through a progressive tax based system. The alternatives—social insurance …