Intended for healthcare professionals

Views & Reviews From the Frontline

Flawed ideology drives the NHS reforms

BMJ 2011; 342 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d3076 (Published 18 May 2011) Cite this as: BMJ 2011;342:d3076
  1. Des Spence, general practitioner, Glasgow
  1. destwo{at}yahoo.co.uk

Scotland is the red haired heartland of socialist ideology. But Adam Smith, the father of modern capitalist economics, was a professor at Glasgow. The Scots have a great tradition of enterprise. Scotland is not subject to the coalition’s NHS competition reforms and is the control group in this national experiment. As an observer I offer some unsolicited, unreferenced advice.

The need for change is based on some unchallenged assertions. Firstly, our health outcome data are “poor” in comparison with other countries. This is utter rubbish, because comparative data are so confounded with errors …

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