To think the goverment are out of order to try and bury an annoucement on the privitisation of NHS services on a day when everyone's watching the enquiry?

[capricorn76]

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/19/nhs-services-open-to-competition

They are even privitising wheelchair services for children.

Privatisation does not necessarily mean a poorer service. Quite the contrary in some instances.

I was recently referred for a scan by my GP. My GP practice uses a private health company instead of the NHS facilities when they refer you for these scans. I had my reservations but they contacted me in less than a week of being referred and when it came to booking a scan I discovered I was not limited to my home area. I could literally choose to go to any of their centres nationwide. I work a long way from home so it's often highly inconvenient for me to be referred for this sort of thing as it means at least a half day off work. So I was able to book a scan in a private imaging centre (one of the best in the city I might add) outside of working hours and I am waiting less than 3 weeks for this honour.

Had my GP chosen to refer me to an NHS facility (as I have been in the past) it would be the local hospital with no room for choice and I would be lucky to get a scan within 2 months and I would probably get an unsuitable time, i.e. late morning or early afternoon which would mean all day off work.

So in my case, a private company was much much better.

It wont necessarily all be bad.

Also there is an article in the paper today about horrendous wastage of NHS money for coeliac sufferers.

The NHS gives gluten free bread, pasta, biscuits etc on prescription when such food stuffs are widely available. They pay £32 per loaf of bread when they are available in the shops for about £2.50. The cost of these prescriptions alone per year is £1.5 million. How much good would taht do elsewhere?

The NHS could learn alot from private companies who would never spend £32 for soemthing that is available for £2.50.

it is crazy,
here is an example of wasted money. dd has epilepsy for years she has been on a branded medicine. a couple of years ago it was changed to a generic one, I asked why and it was cos it was cheaper, I wasn't happy, took advice and gave it a go, dd was fine.
fast forward to a couple of months ago and she is back on the branded one which is way more expensive, because that is now the new rule.
yet she was fine on the generic one!!

Not even mentioned on the news just now. Absolutely shocking.

That's crackers 2shoes.

It's the difference between paying 16p for a box of generic paracetamol or paying £2 for a branded box of Panadol. It's the same f-ing drug.

privatisation means hospitals that don't turn a profit will be 'allowed to fail' - i.e. shut. In order to avoid that, they will chase private patients. The government is lifting restrictions on how much private work hospitals will do. At the same time as removing limits on waiting times. So the rich will get swift, top-notch treatment, while Mr and Ms Average get sicker and sicker waiting for care. Which is what happened under the last Tory government.

Many hospitals are also nobbled because they've been dumped with expensive Private Finance Initiative deals - basically a hideously expensive way of building hospitals that has made loadsamoney for companies selling on the debt but is a massive drain on the public purse. Those hospitals will have even more need to boost their income from private patients.

Privatisation also drives up admin and transaction costs - all those contracts and complex payments cost money and take time to process.

As for 'we can't afford free healthcare' - actually private healthcare costs far more. The US pays a far higher proportion of GDP in healthcare costs, for far worse care and far worse outcomes. The highest performing healthcare system in the US is the Veterans Healthcare Adminstration, which is basically a mini-NHS for servicemen and women.

And when private services have been tried, by the previous government, it's been an expensive waste of time. Independent Sector Treatment Centres were paid whether they did the work or not. And when they did, did it so badly the NHS had to pick up the pieces - costing the taxpayer twice.

PS I am against privatisation wholeheartedly. I agree with edam.

But in the one instance I had, the private compnay was better.