Layla Jaders scheme for separating the NHS from direct government
involvement (ie control) is a recurrent theme ever since the NHS was first
initiated over 50 years ago.However, it has never been more urgent than
now, with the looming financial crisis of health care.'Free' health care
for all may have been just viable in the late 1940s when when Britain
emerged bankrupt from a disastrous war and when the only diagnostic tests
were an ESR and chest X ray.Mass nationalisation of other resources and
services soon proved so disastrous it was all reversed, but health care
remained too contentious even for conservative policies.With todays
affluent society and the huge costs of investigations and treatment,
'free' health care is an anomaly which should be restricted to a small
group of indigent poor.
Most present day escalating costs reflect the waste and inefficiency
implicit in a management completely dissociated from health professionals,
a situation unsustainable in industry and which would soon lead to
bankruptcy.
The rest of the world does very well without an NHS, and has shown no
desire to emulate it.Our health system is not the 'envy of the world' as
is clear when we are ranked low alongside most European or North American
care systems.We need a major restructuring of the NHS, and soon
Rapid Response:
Separating the NHS from Government
Layla Jaders scheme for separating the NHS from direct government
involvement (ie control) is a recurrent theme ever since the NHS was first
initiated over 50 years ago.However, it has never been more urgent than
now, with the looming financial crisis of health care.'Free' health care
for all may have been just viable in the late 1940s when when Britain
emerged bankrupt from a disastrous war and when the only diagnostic tests
were an ESR and chest X ray.Mass nationalisation of other resources and
services soon proved so disastrous it was all reversed, but health care
remained too contentious even for conservative policies.With todays
affluent society and the huge costs of investigations and treatment,
'free' health care is an anomaly which should be restricted to a small
group of indigent poor.
Most present day escalating costs reflect the waste and inefficiency
implicit in a management completely dissociated from health professionals,
a situation unsustainable in industry and which would soon lead to
bankruptcy.
The rest of the world does very well without an NHS, and has shown no
desire to emulate it.Our health system is not the 'envy of the world' as
is clear when we are ranked low alongside most European or North American
care systems.We need a major restructuring of the NHS, and soon
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests