*groan*
Yeah, woe betide anyone who thinks that, actually, de facto nationalised, centralised, government-run monoliths like the NHS represent a pretty shit, ridiculously and demonstrably outmoded, inefficient, wasteful and above all ineffective way of running things (just as per nationalised industries have been in general, at least in the UK). That just maybe, we could learn important lessons from Continental Europe, who by and large have vastly better healthcare systems than we do - with demonstrably much better treatment, survival rates and so on - complete with their participation of the Private Sector? (Yeah, I can just see the French and Germans putting up with the crap that we routinely accept in this country)
That actually, it's an unmitigated scandal that we, in the UK, have one of the worst cancer survival rates and other stats, 'postcode lotteries' and all the rest, despite the vast sums that have been pissed away on the NHS by Labour these last 13 or so years (just as our education standards/standing have similarly been decimated as compared to other peer nations, including those with vastly less wealth and resources- despite massively increased spending
without efficacious reform and according to the same old moribund, useless political dogma/public sector union agenda)
I'm a Tory - of sorts anyway - and funnily enough, I don't think I'm "evil" (
), just because I happen to believe that top-down, centralised, over-complex management structures died off with the dinosaurs for any real world, well run organisation, where slick, empowered, horizontal management has been the answer for untold decades now.
I'm no expert on this Bill and it could well be a dog's dinner for all I know (in fact, it almost certainly is, what with all the endless fudging, political horse-trading and amendments that have been going on in order to get it on the statute book). For me however, any attempt to finally get a grip on stripping out some of the endless, inherent bureaucratic nonsense and waste within the NHS as a failing organisation, as compared to what we could actually have (and just maybe, I could save myself and family about £200/month on private medical insurance), is to be applauded. I really can't stand political fundamentalism and the "holy cow" status of the NHS within some quarters, like we can never acknowledge that something conceived in the 1940s under a Socialist government - before it was subsequently proven that Socialism doesn't actually work - might not actually be the best way to do things, and that we are so arrogant that we cannot learn from our continental neighbours. Etc.
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Beware of gavia articulata oculos...
Dr Lave wrote:
Of course, he's normally wrong but
interestingly wrong