The NHS is having to cope with far more people with far more complicated problems for far longer than has ever been the case. It's also having to deal with the problems caused by short sighted cuts in social care but let's not pretend that serious problems have only ever happened under one colour of government. The amount of money being spent on PFI is staggering and could far better have been spent sorting out the fundamental issues. It's ironic that many people seem to be complaining about the NHS whilst at the same time demanding ever more from it by way of all sorts of services never originally envisaged, going to GP's when they don't really need to and abusing our A&E's/ambulance services with the most trivial complaints...
---------- Post added at 11:28 ---------- Previous post was at 11:24 ----------
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Originally Posted by Damien
I largely agree with you. Especially how people will shout privatisation so no progress will ever be made. I think the whole debate around nationalisation vs privatisation cripples this country as people dogmatically insist on either one or the other irrespective of circumstance. A problem which doesn't exist on the continent who are a lot more pragmatic about this kind of thing.
One point about the French model though is not it's not quite free at the point of use. You do have to pay upfront for some minor things and then later get reimbursed depending on various forms of public and private insurance you can get.
As important as free at the point of use to me is the ease of use. Anything that gets into paperwork, reimbursements and so on I think should be avoided. As well as the cost of the America system the stress of getting the correct paperwork, taxes and coverage in addition to becoming sick must be horrible.
---------- Post added at 09:21 ---------- Previous post was at 09:12 ----------
Is this really the issue?
It seems the biggest burdens on the NHS are an aging population, obesity and alcohol. In 1948 there were fewer old people relative to the population and fewer treatments available. I am not sure the problem with the NHS is snowflakes using it for minor conditions.
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It's not THE problem because there are many but it is a significant problem as anyone who works in a GP surgery or A&E will tell you.
So what we have is a perfect storm a rapidly growing population which will inevitably result in an ever increasing amount of elderly to care for and keep alive at all costs even when they want to be allowed to die...
