RE: Govt White Paper on NHS reforms13 Feb 2021 16:52
There will always be needs for the care of the elderly and for childbirth/maternity care, 'natural' cancers, prostate and breast, to name but a few.
People will always have accidents.
However, there is huge scope for reducing self-inflicted illness, caused by over-eating (obesity) alcoholism-related issues, smoking, drugs, and a slew of others.
Instead of just treating the illnesses we should be rewarding those who do not drain the NHS by staying healthy.
In that sense the system will always be unfair, of course, but that is how it is set up.
There are private healthcare providers who can treat people who take out medical insurance and they may also treat people who are referred under a NHS provision.
For example if you need an operation you can ask your G.P. for 'Choose Booking'.
Under this system your doctor will (or should, if you ask) produce a list of different NHS hospitals, including 'Bupa', who are willing to carry out the procedure.
There will be statistics to view on distance, success rate outcomes, waiting times, etcetera and you are free to pick and choose accordingly.
This seems all well and good to have such a range of choices.
Everyone can receive free treatment on the NHS, if they choose, even if they do not pay national Insurance through work.
The NHS has suffered because of the high costs of medicines and procedures and the ageing population.
In years to come we will have relatively few in work and paying enough taxes to allow the system to operate adequately.
So then where does the money come from? Some solution has to be found.
Private healthcare from paying individuals to receive treatment is very good, but surely not by governments handing tax-payer's (limited) funds to private concerns to make profit from.
If the government does not have the money then how come private healthcare can manage to turn what little there is into profits and dividends for shareholders?
That seems a tall order indeed.
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