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Axe falls on NHS services
Comments
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I find it odd that many people seem to think it better that most people get something that is quite poor rather than the poor getting something better than that and the majority doing even better.
This is the fallacy though isn't it.
The likely choice is a better health system for 1/2 the population and a worse one for the other 1/2 (or some other fraction).
Now this may be preferable to the post code lottery we have now, or the rationing by waiting list thats heading down the track, but it's pure fiction to suggest that having a mix of provision via health insurance is going to magically improve healthcare for everyone.
Why - because despit all the bluster, there is not much evidence to suggest that the NHS is more inefficient than other countries.
Much of the health inequalities in the UK are a function of wealth, smoking, drinking, obesity and past worklife.0 -
Not unless you are very young (which, of course, you may well be). BT was privatised in 1984. Prior to that, the UK had a Soviet-style
supply-driven system of legendary wastefulness, providing little in the way of service.
And, I'm afraid, you have also been misled about the railways. British Rail was an abomination. Your point about high prices is fair enough and it is generally accepted that Major's government got rail privatisation completely wrong. But reincarnating the money pit that was BR ('efficiency? what's that?') would be an absolute disaster.
Would you really want a rail system dominated by Bob Crow and his like?
I've travelled by train from Liverpool to London for over 25 years.
Its probably only in the last 4 years that Virgin is better overall (speed of jny, punctuality, comfort, service etc) than British Rail was in between say 1984-1990.0 -
This is the fallacy though isn't it.
The likely choice is a better health system for 1/2 the population and a worse one for the other 1/2 (or some other fraction).
Now this may be preferable to the post code lottery we have now, or the rationing by waiting list thats heading down the track, but it's pure fiction to suggest that having a mix of provision via health insurance is going to magically improve healthcare for everyone.
Why - because despit all the bluster, there is not much evidence to suggest that the NHS is more inefficient than other countries.
Much of the health inequalities in the UK are a function of wealth, smoking, drinking, obesity and past worklife.
Why is it always about 'inequalites' (save for that is what supporters of the monolithic state are taught to say)?
If, as you claim, these are largely detemined outside the health system, then what matters in judging the NHS are outcomes.0 -
I've travelled by train from Liverpool to London for over 25 years.
Its probably only in the last 4 years that Virgin is better overall (speed of jny, punctuality, comfort, service etc) than British Rail was in between say 1984-1990.
I might give it another go then
'Just think for a moment what a prospect that is. A single market without barriers visible or invisible giving you direct and unhindered access to the purchasing power of over 300 million of the worlds wealthiest and most prosperous people' Margaret Thatcher0 -
Where we'd lived before, all women were offered free ultrasounds much earlier - I think it may have been c 7 weeks?
that's unusual, I think, your later (DS) experience. I had scans at 8, 12, and 24 weeks, plus a is-this-baby-massive extra one at 35 weeks. Which was a waste of time, that 35 week one. They estimated his full-term weight to be 11.5lb (!!), but he was 8lb....much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.0 -
I've worked in private sechools and sent my children to private nurseries, and been shocked at how the profit motive predominates in a way it just doesn't and can't in the public sector.
Most private schools (don't know about nurseries) aren't profit making, though.
BUPA, in this country the biggest private health care mob, is not-for-profit, too....much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.0 -
It has consistently been my experience of the NHS (with exceptions) from Home Counties villages to some of the grottier bits of Central London. It has been so widespread that I can only assume that you have very low expectations.
My NHS experience is all in London, but I agree with Carolt, it's been very good indeed. And I don't think I have very low expectations....much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.0 -
That's because most of them are charities.neverdespairgirl wrote: »Most private schools (don't know about nurseries) aren't profit making, though.I'm not cynical I'm realistic
(If a link I give opens pop ups I won't know I don't use windows)0 -
Not unless you are very young (which, of course, you may well be). BT was privatised in 1984.
It wasn't before I was born, but I don't remember it - I was 5/6 when it was privatised, so phones weren't big on my list of priorities (-:...much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.0 -
generally the ones i've vistied in London are ok - but you go to the one in Whitechapel and there a also couple in South London that are very dire too...neverdespairgirl wrote: »My NHS experience is all in London, but I agree with Carolt, it's been very good indeed. And I don't think I have very low expectations.0
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