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September 29, 2005
The NHS, Privatisation, and Patient Care
Two vignettes from today’s Times reveal how much of the rank-and-file opposition in the Labour party to the government’s plans to increase private-sector delivery of NHS treatment is grounded in sheer prejudice and how badly greater private-sector involvement is needed.
First, in yesterday’s debate at its annual conference on these plans, a nurse is reported to have questioned whether for-profit companies could be motivated by patient care in the delivery of such NHS routine services as district nursing, health visits, occupational therapy, cancer screening, asthma and diabetic clinics. Mm, pursuit of profit in conditions of competition and customer-care are incompatible, that’s an interesting notion I don’t think.
Second, it is reported elsewhere in the same issue that an elderly couple from Portsmouth who have been attending the same g.p. surgery for a total of between them 137 years have been ordered to move to another practice within 28 days because it has apparently just been discovered they live outside the catchment area for that practice. That’s patient-care public-sector monopoly style for you.
Posted by David Conway at September 29, 2005 08:18 AM
Comments
Well, OK. But what about the contracted-out cleaning services? How much customer care do you think most contract cleaners have? And don't you see that this is has as much relevance as blaming the NHS monopoly in the second case?
Posted by: Paul at November 1, 2005 02:34 PM
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