Will NHS Reforms Damage Britain? (read description)

The Conservative / Lib-Dem alliance say their planned NHS reforms will promote "excellence" in British healthcare and "liberate" the NHS, but David Cameron's own brother-in-law, NHS cardiologist Dr Carl Brookes, says "hospitals will be disadvantaged" by the proposed plans, while GP and Tory MP Dr Sarah Wollaston said Tory plans are like throwing "a HAND GRENADE into the NHS".

Forcing the NHS to become more "competitive" will not increase choice, treatment quality or efficiency, here's why...

1. Competition in the NHS will not increase choice or treatment quality

When members of the public ask their GPs for help, it's highly debatable whether patients really want GPs to offer a range of options to choose from, or whether patients simply prefer to be given the best quality treatment; but in fact the proposed NHS reforms will not even offer the increased choice the Con-Dems say they will! If voted through, the planned reforms will mean the abolition of fixed national tariffs for the provision of health services, will mean that an NHS regulatory body (called Monitor) will intervene to ensure that GP surgeries award contracts according to free-market principles, and mean that GPs will only be able to refer patients to providers who've been awarded those contracts. GPs will not be allowed to support local NHS hospitals if a private company offers a cheaper service, as this would be regarded as anti-competitive behaviour under European Law. This means GPs and patients will have LESS choice instead of more, as GPs will be forced to award contracts to those commercial providers who under-cut their competitors. Even worse, the commercial providers will be forced to slash the quality of their products and services, as the only way they'll be able to secure NHS contracts will be by under-cutting competitors, and the only way to do that is by selling ever cheaper "bargain basement" services and goods. Although there are good arguments for greater involvement of clinicians in commissioning care, in fact the proposed reforms will restrict GP's commissioning options and actively discourage best practice in the NHS.

Because the free-market will encourage private companies to focus on providing the lowest-risk and highest-profit services, worse still, NHS hospitals will lose funding previously paid to them to provide those same services, with the result that hospitals will no longer be able to use funds attracted by their expertise in the profit-making fields to cross-subsidise riskier and more expensive services like Accident & Emergency. So, in addition to reducing choice and reducing the quality of care provided by GPs themselves, the knock-on effects of the proposed reforms will also damage other vital health services like A&E and financially destabilise entire hospitals.

2. Competition in the NHS will not increase efficiency

When private companies compete with each other to try and sell different versions of the same products and services to clients in the NHS, those companies have to duplicate each other's administrative facilities to manage the provision and marketing of their rival products and services. This means that, across the entire market-place, red-tape is increased by free-market policies, not reduced. This fact is proven by history - the NHS spent 5% of its budget on admin before the Internal Market was imposed in 1990, now the figure is 14%, and in the USA (where health-care practices are much closer to what the government has in mind for the UK) the 30% spent on admin is more wasteful still. Although the increased red-tape caused by the current NHS reforms will mostly hit the private companies, because those companies will have to compete for NHS contracts on the basis of lowest price, the companies will recoup the cost of that increased red-tape by investing less of the money they earn from selling their products into the actual quality of the products they deliver to the NHS. The idea that more competition will lead to greater efficiency is a total myth!

The fragmentation of service provision also means the NHS will be less able to benefit from economies-of-scale that result from pooling resources across a nation-wide service and (where appropriate) from centralising some manufacturing and purchasing. Fragmentation will also undermine collaboration between NHS departments and threaten long-term continuity of care. The proposed reforms also undermine public health by forcing practitioners to base clinical decisions on judgements of short-term cost - which is not only bad because cheapest services aren't best, but also bad because successful health provision relies on maintaining a culture that values the less easily-measured benefits of long-term investment in training and in medical research.

SAVE THE NHS - SIGN THE PETITION NOW -
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/Protect_our_NHS_Petition

http://www.keepournhspublic.com/

Music by Mr Giantrucci

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[jagara1]

Following on from what you say - did you realise that GP surgeries are privately owned businesses and that many GPs can and do make money on the side seeing private patients in their surgeries...

[NHSinformation]

@jagara1 Yes I'm well aware of this but that's not the problem

[mmartini50]

Thanks for the heads up. We all know this mate, what can we do about it? We're going to look back and rue the day we let these muppets take over the steering wheel...

[NHSinformation]

In the last 24 hours the govt has announced TOTAL U-TURNS on forest privatisation, housing benefit cuts and "lowest price" competition for the NHS, and the BMA London group overwhelmingly voted in favour of total opposition to the NHS reforms. Things are looking VERY good :)

Please keep up your pressure on MPs from all parties to actively oppose NHS reforms, privatisation and cuts

[NHSinformation]

@cj4680 If you think the NHS is 2nd rate, try the American system, and no they don't "terrorise and butcher" people you idiot, and, to prove the point, if you get run over in the street, you'll be still be hoping someone calls 999

[cj4680]

@NHSinformation nhs nurses and doctors are scum,the way they terrorise and butcher people just so they can have a fucking chat and a laugh,then the way the hide behind there lies,its a fucking disgrace,in fact its the only thing cameron has got right,the nhs is a second rate health sevice,

[crazymanstephen]

The problem with this reorganisation is the same as the last half a dozen, the politicians. They maniupulate the NHS to get votes.

lets face it, we are living longer, new treatments are expensive, and there is too much red tape in the NHS. This reorganisation, like its predecessors, will add to the red tape, alienate workers, and create opportunities for spivs and chancers.

we need to remove the NHS from political control to prevent these costly and disruptive reorganisations.

[fredsta786]

they should be called condoms instead of con-dems

[bimblinghill]

I've normally voted Lib Dem in the past, but if they continue to back this nonsense, they can forget my vote in future.

I just don't understand why they're scrapping the PCTs.. the audit office told them it wouldn't save any money & the medical associations have told them that it will make healthcare worse.

[Tzimnewman3]

@jagara1 "The NHS at present buys services from Companies such as mine for very good value as they can buy in bulk."

The solution would be to make your company and other medical companies public. Companies should never be making a profit from medicine which is why all medical companies should be owned and run by the people. The mistake was allowing companies to make drugs and then charge high prices for them. I see no reason why cancer drugs have to go up in price every year.

[janebusby]

The NHS is the single most important issue to me.

IF THE TORIES & LIB DEMS PUSH THROUGH THESE PLANS I WILL NEVER EVER VOTE FOR EITHER OF THEM EVER AGAIN.

No f*cking joke.