But, but, using the market to provide health care means that we cannot plan the provision of health care!
One problem is that market reforms have been accompanied by a hollowing out of the intelligent public health information that is required for healthcare planning and ensuring fairness of distribution of resources. What the public, politicians, clinicians and patient need to know is how are requirements for healthcare and access for the population changing across areas and over time by speciality and treatment, age and sex and social class. They need to know whether resources (money, services and staff) are being distributed and planned to ensure fairness of provision and on the basis of need.
Err, yes, that\’s the point. The market is an alternative to this type of central planning. That\’s why we\’re doing it.
“Fairness” always seems to involve holding those who can back…
That’s not my idea of fair.
“That’s why we’re doing it.”
Except we ain’t. We are simply subsidising the private sector – for a lower volume of less-complex work. Expensive, and thus far, not especially efficient.
Do you actually understand what is happening to clinical services – or are you just interested in reaching your daily quota of platitudes?