Why are UK health services unable to deal with multiple things at the same time, they have to drop something to focus on something else, which makes no sense. You're constantly plugging holes in a sinking ship. Who is responsible for that?
The post-war Labour government who thought that the state is the answer to everything.
No, they do not need more money. The NHS needs reform from the ground up and needs urgently to be taken away from state control.
It is
the second-worst system in Europe (after Malta) and is more expensive per person insured than the second-best (measured in outcomes).
Key points and causes of gross inefficiency -
1. Doctors and other
staff are paid by the hour and not by the treatment.
2. Hospitals and other clinical bodies are
not paid by the treatment, thereby encouraging inefficiencies.
3. Bed-blocking, caused by a desperate lack of care for the infirm, which in turn is caused by a
lack of care insurance.
4.
Lack of specialist doctors. Most medical students become GPs who cannot treat much other than minor ailments but can still call themselves doctors. Elsewhere, you must have completed specialty training and have written a doctoral thesis to be called a doctor.
5.
Lack of other staff such as specialist nurses, radiologists, physiotherapists, therapists, etc., etc., etc.
6.
Lack of preventative care.
There is of course a great deal more that is wrong - but all those things stem from those structural problems caused by the very existence and structure of the NHS.
Health insurance is just another insurance, albeit a bloody expensive one. There are other models that produce better results for less money. The European model of having to pay for
health insurance contributions according to your income, with rates for treatments set out each year by an independent body composed of representatives from patient groups, insurance societies, doctors, hospitals, etc. works brilliantly and costs less per person insured.
The German Krankenkassen (illness funds) system is typical. The 76 insurance societies are strictly not-for-profit, as are nearly all hospitals. Every doctor must have completed specialist training and completed a doctoral thesis in that specialty. The patient gets an insurance card and this unlocks payment for the doctor and also the patient's medical record.
If a patient is not satisfied with one doctor or specialist clinic, they can go to another. After that, if they start shopping around doctors' surgeries, they have to pay for the treatment themselves.
If a patient fails to get preventative care (e.g. teeth inspected or general health check-ups twice a year) they may lose some of their insurance cover and may have to pay for treating specific ailments - terms vary from one insurance society to the next.
You may opt out of the Krankenkasse system, but private insurance is far more expensive and therefore only an option for those who earn so much that it is actually cheaper. The Krankenkassen pay 60% of the private list price.
The result of this private system is almost no waiting lists (orthopaedic surgeons being an exception at the moment with waiting lists for actual treatment up to three months, more in some areas) and a system that cost an average of $3,340 per person insured (2018 figures).
The NHS - $3,400 per person insured.
So keep fighting privatisation - there is a real danger that it actually works. And we wouldn't want that now, would we?
