An NHS in crisis and boom time for private health: that’s the bleak prognosis now
Aditya Chakrabortty
If we end up with a health care system that treats more people, more successfully, sooner, what’s bleak about that?
An NHS in crisis and boom time for private health: that’s the bleak prognosis now
Aditya Chakrabortty
If we end up with a health care system that treats more people, more successfully, sooner, what’s bleak about that?
It’s because people have been bamboozled into thinking that the US system is the only possible implementation of private healthcare.
And maybe would treat them like the customer, which is what the private companies do..?
Devil’s advocate here: it might be bleak if other people are out-bidding you for healthcare. It might be better *overall*, but there are still likely to be winners and losers in the short term.
Rob, it seems to me with ‘our’ NHS, there are only losers. Consistently at the top for ease of access*, consistently near the bottom for ‘patient healthcare outcome’.
*And this metric may drop down the table as we go forward……………
There are only two healthcare systems in the world and they are the NHS and US style systems. In the US system if you don’t have a valid insurance or a working credit card the ambulance drivers willkick you into the ditch and piss on you.
One of the problems with private healthcare here is the lack of depth. It works very well when everything goes ok but in the inevitable cases where things go pear-shaped it’s a blue light journey to the nearest NHS hospital to get it fixed. Also private health insurance generally doesn’t cover chronic conditions.
It would be good if we could get to a state like many other countries where the state funds chronic and insurance covers acute and the private hospitals have the depth to do the difficult stuff. Trouble is it’s a “If you want to get there I wouldn’t start from here” problem.
Jussi at 08:27 – That’s a preposterous assertion. The European healthcare systems are broadly similar to each other and nothing like UK or US. Book yourself a lengthy research session with Dr Google.
I believe our Finnish friend was extracting the urine…
@decnine, I think you should read Jussi’s comment and mentally add a /sarc tag
Jussi’s taking the piss. Even illegal Hispanics get healthcare. I remember reading that ERs can’t turn people away and hospitals were closing their ERs as a result.
You’d know what was bleak about it if you were a doctor who had to move to a private company which made you see patients rather than crafting lengthy answerphone messages and websites telling ill people to back off.
“One of the problems with private healthcare here is the lack of depth. It works very well when everything goes ok but in the inevitable cases where things go pear-shaped it’s a blue light journey to the nearest NHS hospital to get it fixed.”
Why is that a problem? Surely NHS operations also go wrong and require the patient to be rushed to the intensive care unit, so what difference does it make if some private operations ‘go bad’ and need the same care? And as long as the NHS bills the private hospital for any care provided, whats the problem?
Its a bit like saying that if you use an independent garage to repair your car, and he can’t fix some problem and it has to go the main dealer for some specialist work how terrible that is, and as a result you should only use the main dealer for everything.
Surely the info we need to know is what proportion of NHS operations end in a rush to the ICU vs how many private ones do. If the latter was less than the former the NHS could actually be better off if more work was done privately than in house.
“Its a bit like saying that if you use an independent garage to repair your car, and he can’t fix some problem and it has to go the main dealer for some specialist work how terrible that is, and as a result you should only use the main dealer for everything.”
That’s excellent. I shall steal it.
““Its a bit like saying that if you use an independent garage to repair your car, and he can’t fix some problem and it has to go the main dealer for some specialist work how terrible that is, and as a result you should only use the main dealer for everything.”
I’m beginning to wonder if VW might have some tie up with the NHS. 180€ for a replacement headlamp bulb. And the front of the car has to come off to fit it. And there’s a waiting list!
“I was on an 18-month waiting list for laser surgery on my prostate. Informed of little hope of medium-term surgery, I opted for private treatment, saw a urologist within a fortnight and was operated on shortly after.” He describes himself as a “desperate pensioner”, out of options. There are so many like him, a whole army of the unwilling.
It’s why we save our pennies, for old age – when things begin to go wrong/become worn out and need fixing. There’s nothing ‘unwilling’ about it, no desperation, just another fact of life, something you plan for.
“180€ for a replacement headlamp bulb. And the front of the car has to come off to fit it. “
Typical VW. Take a headlamp and build the car around it.
Jim: the point is that the private hospital doesn’t have ICU, so it’s a blue light journey. The NHS hospital has ICU down the corridor. There’s an important time factor involved. It’s true that NHS hospitals sometimes have to blue light or helicopter to, e.g. Addenbrooks for the specialised ICU but that’s much rarer.
And in your car analogy a private hospital would say “Can’t fix that guv, we’ll get you into that NHS hospital for it but we’ll still charge you for the privilege”.
I think it was Blair who said something like if the middle classes start using private healthcare they won’t want to fund the NHS?
That’s why the left are shit scared of private health care, they’ll have to look for better solutions for universal health care.
“180€ for a replacement headlamp bulb. And the front of the car has to come off to fit it. “
Getting the front off a VW isn’t hard these days. A reasonably new A3 (OK Audi, but pretty much identical to a Golf) ran into me on a zebra crossing a few months ago and the front of it just fell off. Maybe it wasn’t a case that the driver was too busy with her phone to see a 6’4″ 14st bloke on a zebra crossing in broad daylight, but that she wanted to change a headlamp bulb!
The Danish NHS is almost identical to “our” NHS. 100% free at the point of use, funded from general taxation, no more expensive etc. *
But waiting times are short and outcomes are better.
So I don’t think it’s a structural problem. It’s just piss poor management.
* The Whitehall equivalent used to be a couple of clerks with pocket calculators, as the system was highly regionalised. Moves are afoot for more centralisation. We shall see what effect this has later.
” the point is that the private hospital doesn’t have ICU, so it’s a blue light journey. The NHS hospital has ICU down the corridor.”
Well that’s just a risk the private patient will have to take then isn’t it? Yes its a bit of a bummer if your private op goes pear shaped and they don’t get you to the ICU in time, and you die, but it doesn’t really factor in to the efficiency of the whole system does it? NHS ICUs are not doing ‘extra’ work because of private ops going bad, assuming private ops go bad at the same rate NHS ones do. After all a person can only have one op for a given problem, so if they have it done privately thats one less for the NHS to do.
If you’re so worried about your op going badly and needing the ICU, wait until the NHS deigns to give you the op. Others will weigh up the risk of an op going bad vs the years of waiting in agony for the NHS to do something, and decide to go private anyway.
Not to mention the elderly parents of immigrants on chain migration and women who suddenly get taken pregnant while in the UK on holiday …
Jussi
Genius – the fact a couple of people didn’t see it is even more proof!
Not sure it’s the story of the U.K. since 79 (especially given the current level of public expenditure!!) but that’s certainly where this deeply tired and tiresome individual is stuck. Arguably worse than Owen Jones or Rhiannon as people do take him seriously
I think it was Blair who said something like if the middle classes start using private healthcare they won’t want to fund the NHS?
That’s the explicit rationale for disallowing private health care in the People’s Republic of the Great White North. As a result we have the second-highest health care costs in the developed world, and the worst outcomes.
That’s the explicit rationale for disallowing private health care in the People’s Republic of the Great White North. As a result we have the second-highest health care costs in the developed world, and the worst outcomes.
And that is why we get a lot of border jumpers coming south for the totally screwed up US health care.