Most GPs think government’s health reforms will lead to privatisation of NHS

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Apparently it?s not only troublesome lefties like me that think the government?s health reforms are just a way to underhandedly privatise the NHS.

It seems GPs ? not traditionally the most left-wing group of people ? think so too.

According to a recent survey, 63% of GPs say the health service reforms will lead to the privatisation of the NHS, despite reassurances from the Government that it will not (table 8):

Conflicts of Interest ? onmedica

www.onmedica.com/getresource.aspx?resourceid=84170e1a-8050-4792-af9a-7a6a84e17a33

Can anyone explain to me how the clear privatisation of the NHS isn?t bigger news than it is please?

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Have a look at the survey to get an insight in to what GPs think about the recent NHS reforms.

It's not news because the principle was established (or abandoned, depending on whcih end you come at this from) by the last Government.

The rest is detail. And pretty inevitable under both the main parties.

It's already privatised in many ways. DD1's school tried to arrange a wheelchair (they're a special school) for her today as she's broken her ankle.

They went to one of their usual NHS resources, only to be told 'sorry, we're run by a private company now and so we can't help.'

It's not absolutely inevitable, because privatising the NHS is a vote-loser.

And NOT privatising the NHS is a vote-winner for whoever wants to promise it and reverse last year's legislation. Which could be UKIP, or anyone.

The two main parties have been trading for years on the belief that they can screw their core constituents with impunity because those people have no where else to go.

They are wrong.

This is how the minority parties get a foot in the door. And the next set of small parties are unlikely to play all-public-school-chums-together with the Tories if there's a coalition.

Let's hope so, Parsing.

The coalition forced through dramatic 'reforms' that no-one voted for, that weren't in either manifesto and that weren't in the coalition agreement, and managed to sneak them through because they were - apparently - too complicated for most MPs and certainly many news editors to understand. By the time the big medical organisations began to explain properly, it was too late.

One theory I heard - no idea whether true or not - is that the Royal Colleges just assumed that the government would listen to their authoritative and informed arguments. They woke up too late to the fact that they were being steamrollered.

It is true that the last government laid some of the groundwork. But the Tories and Lib Dems took it to extremes that even the wildest Blairite would never have dreamed of reaching. New Labour wanted more private sector 'expertise' (ffs), not complete privatisation. Independent Sector Treatment Centres were expensive for the taxpayer and hugely profitable for the private sector but they were very small beer compared to what we have now.

Every Health Act since 1948 has started with a legal duty on the Secretary of State to provide an NHS. Until this government. Which took it out. Unbelievably shocking that a. they did it and b. they got away with it.

As a paramedic with 12 years in the NHS i look forward to the day when it,s privatised. If what i see is scaled up to the wider NHS then the waste of money must be on a truly colossal scale. I would estimate that 70-80% of people we transport in to hospital have no need to go to hospital or can be seen by others agencies. I heard that the average cost of an ambulance is about £400. Add all the other costs,nurses, doctors,equipment etc and you can imagine what the average cost of a visit to hospital is. A lot of money. It,s grossly inefficient in my view and radical change is needed before we run out of money to pay for it.

From what I am told by relatives who work in the NHS I totally agree with Paramaniac