Save our NHS from Privitisation ..... Why ?

By: Nadeem_Walayat

In a week when statistics of deaths from NHS hospital infections continued to soar from a number of 'Super Bugs'. They may be super bugs in the UK, but do not even appear on the radar in many other countries.

Deaths in UK NHS hospitals from so called super bugs such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile continue to soar by nearly 70%, totaling over 5,400 deaths in 1 year. The NHS is well on the path to becoming one of Britians biggest killers.

Right from GP surgery's awash with government incompetent contracts that have resulted in obscene pay deals of more than 30% per year. To the Hospitals abused by Consultants, that are able to get away with using out dated and inefficient medical procedures due to Hospital CEO's being unable to or unwilling to tussle with consultants to bring their hospitals into the 21st Century.

Meanwhile the million plus on the NHS gravy train continue march and protest against any sort of privatisation and reform of a failing system. patients continue to suffer neglect from GP Surgeries right into the hospitals, where the operative words are cuts, delays and more cuts.

Recently the propaganda arm of NHS GP's, have been trying to fight back against the criticism of obscene self imposed pay rises of 30%+, though a campaign that publicises that the average cost of GP consultation is £20, against an private consultation of some £50.

Now on face value that seems like a great saving being afforded the British public, i.e. £20 as against £50. The problem is what is the actual worth of these £20 consultation ? Many people who visit NHS GP surgeries up and down the land, complain of the indifference from doctors who arbitrary ignore symptoms, where it can take many months and numerous visits before the GP actually takes an interest in the patients symptoms, that's if the patient has not given up on the NHS GP by then.

As ever it is actual experiences that count, rather than propaganda served.

Take the case of a 56 year old woman from Sheffield, UK, who made or had as many as 7 visits from her local GP surgery, where each consultation resulted in her symptoms being ignored and put down to being nothing more than as a consequence of 'environmental flu'

Her family concerned with the clear deterioration of her condition eventually phoned for an ambulance to take her to the local hospital. However the ambulance service would refer the family back to the GP's diagnoses of 'environmental flu' and thus refused to come out. The family in the end were forced to tell the ambulance service that the GP had told them to call the ambulance to take her to the hospital. And it is only then that they came.

Unfortunately within a matter of hours of arriving at the hospital the family of the patient were informed that she had probably less than 3 weeks left to live !

Had the NHS GP's paid even a cursory lip service to performing a proper diagnoses, or referring to the patients medical records, rather than arbitrary dismissal of her symptoms as being nothing more than 'environmental flu' then maybe she would be alive today ?

So are seven £20 dismissive NHS GP consultations equal to one private £50 consultation ? It literally could mean the difference between life and death ?

The above may be an extreme example, but how many people that visit their GP surgeries up and down the land are met with dismissive GP's who have become arrogantly drunk on having their salaries tripled under New Labour's communistic style fiasco of running the NHS. When the best your NHS GP can do is to shrug their shoulder, does that make you more or less likely to go back to that NHS GP ?

When at a time to get a proper diagnosis, patients being forced to go to private GP's, then the time has definitely come to privatise the NHS, and make it properly accountable to the patients for whom it was meant to service, rather than feeding those gorging on its £110 billion+ of mostly wasted resources.

The spending on the NHS has grown to more than £110 billion a year from less than £37 billions a year when Labour came to office.The extra spending was never meant for a tripling in GP salaries, but for a tripling in patient healthcare ! The British public have literally been defrauded of health care that they are having to pay for but not receiving.

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