Britain: Island of fear

Excerpt from Prof. Brignell

The climate among ordinary people in Britain seems to be evolving from resentment to fear. You sense it in conversations in the streets, pubs and clubs. The state is out of control, but firmly in control. Stress and anxiety abound.

Suddenly, falling ill has been transformed from a misfortune to a disaster, especially if it happens out of office hours. Your bending author's family recently had an experience like this [ambulance very slow to arrive], without the blood but with a genuine threat to life.

The unremitting reorganisation of the NHS over the last decade, with drastic and often circular changes, has brought it almost to a standstill: note, by the way, how accurately the law of targets has been followed. Bureaucrats like big; so small effective local hospitals are forced to close. If you double the distance to the nearest hospital (as is now a common experience) you quadruple the time for the round trip by the ambulance, even it there is one available.

It appears that everyone who dials the emergency number is now routinely told "We are very busy at the moment." It seems to take about eight hours from someone falling seriously ill to their being received in an emergency ward: more if they are inconsiderate enough to do it out of office hours.

When they arrive at the hospital, they are placed in a filthy mixed ward, where dedicated but demoralised staff struggle to heal them, first of their primary illness and then (for the unlucky ones) of the hospital-borne infection.

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation. Both Australia and Sweden have large private sector health systems with government reimbursement for privately-provided services so can a purely private system with some level of government reimbursement or insurance for the poor be so hard to do?

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