Dr. Karol Sikora

[tomomifishy]

What an idiot. Goes to show even an idiot can be well-educated. Anyone with an ounce of sense would realize that what he is talking about exists in the US. Needless to say, in the US there is no efficiency and it is grossly expensive. That is what lead to Health care reform in the first place!

I am an American who lived in the U.K. for 20 years. You CAN get private ins in the UK if you want it. Most PREFER the NHS. This clown glosses right over those facts to promote his own agenda.

[mj1890]

Wipe your mouth, Dr. Sikora. You're talking sh*t.

I have had experience of Canadian, Amercian and Briitish healthcare. I am proud of socialist healthcare.

[matbarrie]

The private sector is cost effective by three methods.

1. They shaft the customer.

2. They shaft their employee's.

3. They shaft both.

[davejparr]

What a load of rubbish. Our dear 'Professor' must be short of work, I hope it paid well!

[GavinA74]

Furthermore, I know of no examples of the elderly being rationed out of care here (all my grandparents have long histories of ill health) but I do know plenty of cases of American insurance firms refusing funding.

[GavinA74]

There is still private care available in the UK, so the NHS increases choice. The people who cannot afford private care in the UK, can still get the NHS where as in the US they get nothing. There are many faults with the NHS but it beats the US system. This channel has no right to call itself a PATIENTS right group.

[mj1890]

Long live the NHS

[MrPenpusher]

OK Lets cut the crap, this man Karol Sikora runs a private cancer company in the UK he wants the NHS to be commercialised he wants to make money - if he wants to be a businessman rather than a Dr he should move to States and leave the UK in the safe hands of Dr's who are committed to the NHS. Not talk down the principles of his colleagues and patients

Talk about a man for all seasons.

[hauskalainen]

Sikora claimed that he was tricked into this, but the truth is that he is telling huge lies. He says that there is a state monopoly provider in the UK but that is absolutely not true! Nobody is forced to use the NHS!! There is complete choice to use a private doctor, a private hospital, pay for private insurance, buy your own drugs. The NHS should sack him for this! I believe he must have been PAID to say things he KNOWS are not true.

[R4zz1]

In US the govt has bankrupt it's self and the taxpayer. We pay more for everything because they tax us to death. Now the US govt wants to control one more part of our lives. I say don't let the govt make a decision about When and how you get health care. Fight for your few rights you have left.

[mj1890]

Don't fight for choice, fight for free healthcare

[creaturesGREATnSmall]

Aren't you paying attention Moron? Single payer systems are not FREE when you can't get the medication or procedures to save your life, or to heal your wounds.

[mj1890]

sorry wasn't paying attention. Choice is not the issue, good healthcare is the issue. Private healthcare promoters use the term "choice" to hide their real motive - PROFIT.

[kaziqbal]

Hey dumbass, PROFIT is what gets these new drugs and live saving medical innovation that saves lives and prevents excruciating pain.

Not doing for PROFIT a person is a slave, and those throughout history who have supported slavery throughout history eventually get their skulls kicked in,

[hauskalainen]

Americans are hoodwinked into being told that the government wastes money and commercial industry doesn't. But roads, schools, fire services (and in England health care) are not a waste of public money. Taxes in Europe pay not just for medical benefits, but also unemployment and sickness (loss of earnings) benefits, pensions, maternity pay, social centers for elderly, memory clinics, dental care... people pay taxes but get real benefit from it!!!

[digbyandjuliet]

I am a doctor working in the NHS a system which I am very proud of. Yes there are short comings but I would much rather be providing health care here than in the US. There is no evidence that providing choice adds efficiency. In my practice we do not discriminate agains the elderly and discuss choices with them. I dont know what Dr Sikora's agenda is but it is quite disturbing. How does Dr Sikora propose to provide for those who like the millions of Americans cant afford health care.

[creaturesGREATnSmall]

Hmm, me thinks me smells an Obama plant.  SNORT! You lie like he does.

[mj1890]

Wipe your mouth Dr. Sikora, you're talking s**t

[yorkshiredoc]

What nonsence! It sounds like US consultants feeling nervously for their wallets. The NHS is fantastic at dealing with serious illness quickly and free at the point of delivery. For example if you have a heart attack in Britain you will be admitted to a local hospital quickly, perhaps then transfered to a tertiary hospital for emergency angiograms and angioplasty all within 48 hours (in Yorkshire). The poor in the US won't get that service - which might explain why we live longer in UK!

[vilehamster]

How dare he? Greed is all that is about, greed and privilege. He should be ashamed of himself. The NHS may not be prefect but it is infinitely better than the US system of healthcare.

Perhaps Sikora should go and live in the US - and then come down with some really expensive-to-treat disabling disease.

[reach4thelasers]

In Britain we have a choice over who provides our health care. I get private healthcare through my job. But even if I didn't have private. I am reasured that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow and need X-Rays, CAT scans, Hospital Stays, or Even a Lifetime of medical care that I will not wake up in hospital and have a nurse hand me a 6-figure invoice.

America is a great nation but being forced to pay for medical care.... its unthinkable.

[seancousin]

Long live the NHS.

[CertainSongs]

I moved to the UK from Chicago with my wife. While here, my wife got pregnant and had a baby, using the NHS the entire time. It was the single best experience with healthcare that either of us had ever had (having lived in the US and Canada as well). They even made house calls after the baby was born for two weeks!  Don't buy into this nonsense.

[charlesajking]

From the Guardian:

'Sikora, who has worked in the US, says that he agrees with Obama that the two main problems with the American system are the large number of people without health insurance and the high cost of medical treatment, which is "driven by business-minded doctors".'

Sounds like he doesn't really know what he thinks.

[charlesajking]

Conservatives for Patients Rights is run by Rick Scott, who was CEO of Columbia/HCA at the time it was engaging in massively fraudulent overbilling, a practice that led to it being forced to pay out $1.7bn in settlement.. This is the sort of 'healthcare' that C4PR represents.

The NHS may have problems, but it is a shining beacon compared to the US system which is governed by insurance adjusters who'll kick you out of your hospital bed.

[thorntristan]

viva NHS, it's not called GREAT Britain for nothing, people can't always be treated as consumers, i wonder how much that Sikora got paid to say all that

[kkqd3823]

Dr Sikora's comments are intentionally misleading. Although the NHS is the sole provider of healthcare in the UK there is an internal market within the NHS with trust (the organisations that run hospitals and community care) competing for patients to drive up efficiency. That's not to say I think that's a good thing- a large study during the Thatcher years showed that where there was the most competition there was the most variation in care standards and more people suffered as a consequence.

[kkqd3823]

Also, although it is true the NHS has to restrict care to what it can afford, so do all healthcare systems. If you have a state run healthcare system then the choice of who gets care and when is made on CLINICAL need not ability to pay. This is the main benefit of a state healthcare system- choice sounds like a great thing but honestly how many lay people will ever be able to be informed enough about science and medical research to make an informed decision on treatments.

[hauskalainen]

The NHS is definitely NOT the sole provider of health care. There are private hospitals and private consultants. Everyone is free to take private insurance and many do get private health via an employer. Most people don't see a orivate doctor even if they have employer funded private care though because the NHS is so good at what it does. Methinks its why the private sector is keen to sell excess capacity to the NHS these days.

[kkqd3823]

Quite right, I should have said main healthcare provider.

[neal7654]

This is totally unacceptable. I'm a Brit living in the US and anyone watching this, especially Americans, should remember that health care is a human right not a commodity or product. The NHS was build around this shared moral outlook. Also, you have the choice to go private in the UK if you want to, there is choice out there. We pay for our health service out of our taxes and are proud of it... far more so than the corporate corruption and profiteering that goes by the name health care in USA

[Lucher3]

The NHS is being run down so middle class people will get fed up and start paying.

This guy works at a private university, so he is only interested in money

[yorkshiredoc]

If he was any good he would be dean of a medical school at a proper university.

[akrrrs]

In America, they already pay large amounts of money to consultants and academics (via journals) to market their drugs at conferences and symposia. This is not for the interest of of the patient but far more for the profit for the pharmacetical and healthcare industry.

The NHS was one of the great achievements of this country and to see it eroded in this way is maddening.

[akrrrs]

This make my p**s boil!

Who's lining this guys pockets?

I have worked for several years in medical communications and have seen the gradual influence of american-style consumerism on our healthcare system - this is not a good thing.

The sort of system Professor Sikora talks about is one where big pharma (and private healthcare providers) exert tremendous influence over doctors and patients decisions.

[miketoons]

No thank you Dr. Sikora. I'm very happy that Britain has the NHS and I would not want a US-style health system at all. I don't want to 'shop around' for my health.

[aleckinghorn]

This is absolute scaremongering! Another way that US health insurance providers are trying to make it look like they are the only way.

I really wonder how much this British doctor has been paid to slate a healthcare system that British people like myself would never EVER give up.

It's not perfect, but it's better than the US system which they seem to be proposing. Here EVERYONE gets treated with high quality care.

[viejasbotas]

The NHS is not perfect.

However it provides significantly more help to people who cannot afford private medical insurance than the US system does.

This is nonsense propaganda on behalf of big pharma.

[mj1890]

Viva NHS. This man wants to remove the right to free healthcare. 

We are not consumers.