If you hadn't heard of Twitter before, you certainly have now. As soon as the beloved institution is criticised by Americans, of all people, out of the woodwork pops Uncle Tom Cobley and all. The same people who last week didn't have a good word to say about the NHS are suddenly its biggest defenders. And they say a week is a long time in politics! Try a couple of days.
I suppose the reaction is understandable. You can criticise your children, but as soon as some else decides to join in the act, you become protective and blast the other person for daring to criticise your kids. The difference here being your children are your flesh and blood, the NHS is not.
Some of the comments on Twitter have been amusing. For example, 'the NHS saved my life after a car accident.' The NHS only saved this person's life because it is only the NHS that has an Accident and Emergency department. If they had been involved in the same car accident in any other western country, the medics there would also have dealt with them the same way. I tweeted earlier today saying the NHS saved my father's life and also nearly killed him after he went into hospital for a routine operation, and left with MRSA. For many, this is the reality of the NHS.
The NHS also costs us a fortune. We have become so used to paying our high taxes, we forget other European countries manage to provide a higher level of healthcare at a lower cost. It is hugely cumbersome and top heavy with managers. It can barely cope with the demands placed on it today. You can hear in creaking under the pressure. How will it cope in the next 10 to 20 years?
This question will not be addressed because the NHS is a sacred cow in British politics. Propose any changes and you are evil for even thinking about privatising healthcare. All insurance companies are also evil. After all, it is wrong to even think about making a profit from making people better. Try to remind those people who argue this way that pharmaceutical companies make a profit, indeed a much larger profit because they charge the NHS more for drugs than they do in other countries and you will be hit by a tirade of abuse aimed at the very companies that provide life saving medicines. You simply can't win, and what is more, you will never get a prime minister who will even attempt to play, never mind win.
We are letting our children and our children's children down. By not grasping the nettle, we are giving them a healthcare time-bomb to go along with the pensions time-bomb and the tax time-bomb. Future generations are pretty much screwed, unless politicians are brave enough to forcibly advocate a different way. Don't hold you breath.
7 comments:
"How will it cope in the next 10 to 20 years?"
If you right-wing ideologues hiding under the guise of a fluffy green tree have your way then it won't cope very well at all will it?
I can understand why it is "disheartening" for you to see how far away your views are from the British electorate. It means that sooner or later they will find you out.
Funny, I pay less tax as a middle income earner than almost all of my European colleagues - so I am not sure I follow your comment. Yes - we will have problems and the NHS needs to reform. But the principle of universal healthcare, whatever it is called, absolutely needs to be sacred. God forbid we go down the American route of healthcare controlled by people whose first priority is share prices.
How utterly out of touch you are, hopefully this'll ruin the chances of 'Dave- look I swear aren't I normal you can trust me' ever being elected.
Put it this way - There are more pressing issues than healthcare you people should be paying attention to now. You know, all this talk in the last few years about Tort reform; if it ever amounts to anything it would probably make a Conservative's head explode.
How quaintly out of touch with the people and in the thrall of discredited market ideology "modern" conservatism is. You want to destroy all that is good about this country and sell it to offshore plutocrats who owe no loyalty or allegiance to this country - or even bother to contribute to it. Well at least you are putting the Con back in Conservatism.
Some years back, a friend of mine took a job as a health professional in Arkansas, USA. The policy at the time was that a post would only be made available to someone from overseas, if it could not be filled by an American national.
My friend was well paid, but left the job after a few months, because of her disatisfaction at the way the elderly clients in the institution were being given excessive physical therapy when they had no further prospect of improvement. The reasoning was not clinical, but simply down to their quantity of health insurance.
It struck me as a waste of resources and an interesting insight into the US system.
Keeping the majority healthy must also be good for employment and production.
Paul
Tories showing their true colours. You're wrong, Andrew Allison, in every sense of the word.
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