Comparative data from the world population review. take a look.
The NHS is not perfect, its a failing institution, 35 years ago it was the best health service in the world and it had numerous flaws then. A decade and a half of genuine attacks by a conservative government and in my opinion bad strategies by the previous administration have put the NHS under severe, possibly existential pressure. 7 million people waiting for treatment is an absolute scandal, but privatisation is not the answer.
10% of the UK population are on waiting lists, 10% of the US population (the only industrialised nation without a public health system and a largely profitised system) and another 10% or so who only have very limited coverage, and Meds are generally factors more expensive than they are in the UK. The social implications of an American style profitised system (which is now about 10% of US GDP) are massive, the latest academic papers are connecting lower start-ups and innovation with the private health care system, because those in jobs with good health care plans which is where most people have their health care plans cannot risk their health plans to start new businesses. My argument isn't that Singapore is better or worse (but the data from a respected international comparative shows it to be worse) its that a privatised system for health will not work, specifically because privatisation leads to profitisation.
There are factions within the Tories who genuinely want a fully privatised US style health system and it has to be resisted, and if they don't necessarily agree with it themselves they are being backed by and doing the bidding of think tanks that are pushing that agenda often on behalf of US drug companies. it was well reported that one condition of trade deals post Brexit with the US was removal of price caps for the drugs market in the UK. That is what every single British person needs to be concerned about.
I don't live there anymore and have private medical insurance, but i still have family that are reliant on the NHS, so I do not want to see it fail and it is heading that way.
Nobody wants to see the NHS fail and I don’t want a US system - I wish they would copy here.
You or I can quote any report we like but the facts remain….
Getting an appointment in the UK is pretty much impossible for many brits, here it’s minutes.
Seeing a specialist can take months or years, where as here you could see today.
Waiting months for scan results where here you get them in 24hrs and the scan is pretty much on the day you request it.
Follow up and treatment is instant here, unlike the UK.
That’s why it’s a better health service than the NHS and it simply works.
It’s a mixture of private and public which is how the NHS should be, but the NHS management is at fault for a lot of the issues and waste.
I don’t want one mega provider as it is too big to manage and to easy for it to hide the waste, which is why I want the NHS broken up.
I think the private system here is very different to the UK and maybe not what you are used to.
A hospital here may have seven or eight small businesses run by an individual specialist doctor that all offer the same service.
This keeps prices down as there is competition and choice.
The hospital itself provides the facilities and the individual doctors book time for patients in theatres, radiology and wards etc.
The hospital services price are also in competition with other hospital service providers.
Of course some of these providers grow such as Raffles medical but generally you have a lot of choice.
The above is why I think we should move towards how Singapore delivers health including how it’s funded.
In addendum…
You may have private cover in the UK, but they will not do many things that are complicated and if it goes wrong they simply dump you on the NHS - which in itself isn’t overly fair!!
