Listening to the reports this morning of elderly patients who have been failed in the level of care to the point of criminal neglect, it is obvious that Question Time’s first topic about NHS reforms completely missed the point.
Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley admitted that he has been working on the proposed changes to the NHS for eight years, and appears to have come up with a plan that lacks any support from the doctors and health professionals who are at the coal face.
Dr Phil Hammond pointed out that the current bill has more than eighty references to competition, but less than ten references to integration. So it is clear that they are planning to invite private companies to compete for the services offered. Dr Hammond agreed that competition can be useful in finding efficiencies, but it must not be at the expense of the quality of care.
We are told that we all love the NHS, that it is the envy of the rest of the world. It beggars the question about health services in other countries, if they envy our senior citizens the situation where they get such poor care that they are forced to lie in their own excreta.
Lets, take off the blinkers. Whilst the original idea of services, free at the point of care is an ideal worth fighting for, the quality of those services has to be as good as can be achieved, otherwise we are chasing a costly pipedream. A pipedream that, in certain cases, has turned into a nightmare.
