Thursday 7 May 2009

Killing the sacred cow

Lifted wholesale from the LPUK blog:

One of the greatest problems that a Libertarian has is trying to convey the message that Libertarians would not close all of the hospitals in the country, and the dead, dying and ill would be lying in hedgerows and/or the work house.

Anybody who has been near an NHS hospital in recent years will know that the NHS is not 'the envy of the world'. This myth has grown up over the last sixty years that has been reinforced by this Government, to the point that the NHS is beyond reform. Its hospitals are dirty, prone to MRSA, overstaffed with accountants and administrators. Its the UK encapsulated.

Don't take my word for it visit any French,German or Italian hospital to see the difference.

Yesterday a nurse was facing disciplinary action for calling out details of patients bowel movements across the wards, and failing to attend to the most basic of hygiene standards of washing hands after handling rubbish, before dealing with patients.

Today a body of a missing patient was found after three days in a locked toilet. This begs two questions, three days for a patient to be missing ?? three days and a cleaner had not checked or cleaning the toilet in the hospital.

Whilst whistleblowers are stripped of their livelihoods for highlighting the foul conditions that patients are forced to endure, these practices will continue.

The sacred cow is bloated,riddled with disease and shot have been sent to the knackers yard years ago. None of the main three parties dare touch the NHS because of its ill deserved iconic status.

The National Insurance scheme that we pay into should revert back to what it was intended to be an insurance scheme. Not another route into the general taxation pot, so that the Government of the day, scared of raising direct income tax, increases NI instead, as it is the line of least resistance as far as the public is concerned because nobody complains as they are deluded into thinking it is all going into hospitals and pensions.

Each hospital should be self administered, and should only receive patients if it can maintain the most stringent of standards, otherwise it should close on Health and Safety grounds alone. Whitehall is about the last place that should be trusted with collecting in Health Insurance.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hear! Hear!

Stan said...

As I often say, why does it matter whether the NHS is in the private sector as long as the ethos that it is free to all at the point of access is maintained?

Unless, of course, the point of the NHS is not to deliver first class healthcare, but to provide a guaranteed voter base for socialist parties?

The NHS (official costs) is roughly £1500 per person per year. Of course - as only half the population work the actual cost is £3000 per working person.

That doesn't include the separate social care costs which are picked up by local government taxation (but are included in other countries health budgets) meaning that the NHS isn't anything like as good a value for money as many would have us believe.

The sooner we kill off this sacred cow the better.

Bagpuss said...

The NHS is a socialist construct. Nuff sed.

Dr Evil said...

At airports the bogs have a notice saying who cleaned ir during the past hour! If airports can be this clean, so should hospitals. 100,000 patients a year acquire a nosocomial infection and at least 5000 die from it. This is DISGUSTING!!!! They NHS should be reformed along the French or German models. This would mean everyone having a heathcare insurance policy (if they can afford it).

Anonymous said...

Fly a bit further than Germany etc. Try Thailand absolutely first class treatment and its almost worth getting sick just for the nurses. If you want to see a hospital in a dedeveoping country take a look at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. Millions spent on it and its disgusting, stinks,dirty and as for food (and I use that word in the loosest sense) inedible half the staff can't speak English. The money would be better spent on air fares to Thailand while they are there get their teeth fixed as well.

Anonymous said...

I think its strangely appropriate that our 3rd rate, Third World health 'service'(sic) should be staffed by 3rd world immigrants...