Health concerns us all, that's why there is a "Health Issues" section, and everyone no doubt feels they have a right to an opinion on how a nation's health service should be run. David Cameron has a so-called "listening" panel, the NHS Future Forum, although there's a lack of information on local meetings to allow people to "engage" with the forum. But members can be absolutely sure that all health specialties are making their informed opinions known.
Good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth. How envious our friends from the Philippines must be, when UK healthcare is essentially free at the point of delivery, funded centrally from taxation. Attempting to selectively charge people - over and above taxation - would be a bureaucratic nightmare, even if they could afford it, requiring more, not less managers. Doctors would be struck off by the GMC if they tried refusing treatment because a patient was a smoker, or ate or drank to excess. There are few conditions which are not the result of "lifestyle choices" - it's not for us to make judgements on how responsible they may or may not have been. What is certain, however, is that no health service can cope with current levels of alcohol abuse, smoking, and obesity. This can't easily be provided through competition because some patients are more complicated and expensive than others. Competition drives down cost and also quality. Private companies will cherry-pick the easiest and most profitable procedures. Privatisation of patient transport and Accident and Emergency are thus non-starters. The NHS pools everyone's risk and money, and the rich pay for the poor. This provides a decent, but occasionally bad, service, which needs to be improved and made more efficient.
I have no idea who, apart from myself, has read the proposed NHS reforms. But it seems to me that handing commissioning to GP consortia, while not a quick fix, is the right way forward. NICE ( National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence ) will set the quality standards to guide the GP's. The standards then have to be audited. That takes time. It will take less time to know whether or not David Cameron has listened to the NHS Future Forum. Sadly he won't read opinions on this forum. But members who don't live in England are also more interested in information on matters concerning them. I certainly didn't join to be drawn into debates on the NHS. Advice on health is a different issue altogether, gladly given.
