The NHS is sending fewer patients for admission to private hospitals than before the pandemic, despite a £10 billion scheme intended to help reduce the backlog by using independent facilities.
Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, has been warned that vast capacity to treat NHS patients in private hospitals is going “unused” despite his previous announcement that making use of such facilities would allow some patients to be seen “a lot more quickly”.
And we do seem to have unused medical capacity. What can it be other than politics which is leaving the sick to rot?
Got a friend in hospital at the moment. When I’ve visited, the place is virtually deserted. Plenty of staff there, but the ward my friend is on is only 2/3 full. No-one seems to be in the Outpatients dept. either.
All the money that could have paid for treatment has been:
(1) not produced due to the massive lockdown-induced recession that we no longer talk about
(2) spaffed away on tests, masks, etc.
Oh, and patients just not turning up. Example: double jabbed older relative who has blatant superficial thrombophlebitis and is refusing repeated pleas to go to hospital or even the GP because “there will be all corona people there and I will probably die”.
Father-in-law has had two operations paid for privately but miraculously done by the same consultant and facility which couldn’t do it on the NHS without a long wait. My conclusion is that it’s a scam.
I can’t think of such a pisspoor government in terms of tactics than the Tories. The NHS is highly motivated to both spend money on themselves AND fuck up the Tories (because getting Labour in would get them even more money).
This was the way to start privatisation. Call it “Extra Health Capacity”, fund private hospitals and then don’t stop funding it. “Well, the NHS is struggling to cope, so we’re spending more money on Extra Health Capacity”. Over time, you increase the size of it while switching off the Marxist machine.
During the first lockdown, my mother was sent for her ARWMD eye injections to a very swish private eye clinic in Buckhurst Hill.
The sort of place where you aren’t kept waiting, yea and coffee are offered, the furnishings aren’t wipe clean plastic, etc…
She was quite disappointed when the eye department opened up again at the grotty local NHS monolith!
“Father-in-law has had two operations paid for privately but miraculously done by the same consultant and facility which couldn’t do it on the NHS without a long wait.”
Probably because the NHS wouldn’t pay for it if it was done on the same schedule. Are they still limiting the number of patients a doctor can see to cap their payouts?
Almost every move by the government over the last 18 months has been stepping into a series of opportunist traps set by the left for a (nominally, at least) conservative government.
And in the last 5 or 6 months the sound of those traps snapping shut has been deafening.
See also: COP26
Fucking idiots
If they wanted to get a head start on moving to an Australian or French model, they could start by fixing NHS dentistry. At present it’s a shambles; but it’s sufficiently disconnected from the rest of the system that it should be an easy candidate for trialling new funding structures.
It’s always surprised me how few companies have moved to offering dental coverage as a benefit given that NHS dentistry hasn’t been available for a large part of the adult population for a very long time, similar case with opticians.
NHS Dentistry is almost the way of the dodo. A very limited range of possible treatments, with piss-poor payment to the dentist. To do a halfway decent job actually costs the dentist money, so they are incentivised to move away from NHS to a private and/or insurance based model. This is deliberate on the part of the NHS.
I paid a very rare visit to GP on Friday. Rung the surgery at 5 on Thursday evening to book an appointment. They answered immediately said they’d ring me back with a time. The doctor rang me at 9PM & asked when I’d like it. Tomorrow? Any time you’d prefer? Whenever suits you. 8AM OK? Fine by me.
Got to the surgery at 7:55. Doctor answered the door. Done & dusted by 8:10. €60
Spain of course.
Oh, I should have mentioned, to rub it in.
Left with a prescription for an anti-alergy cream, not available without one. €2,30. Barely 2 quid.
bis,
But surely all those sick and dying people littering the streets because you haven’t got an NHS must be an inconvenience?
I just step over them, BiND. Occasionally, out of generosity, I give one a kick.