Common Decency

I have to say this a myth, the NHS is an awful system, yes it is "free" but nothing is free, we pay for it in our taxes and it costs a lot, 20% of all the money the government spends. And what do we get? Waiting lists, poor standards, restriction of treatments, and in most cases poor service.

Every day there is a story in the news about some failure or other of the NHS. My own experiences of it, through family members' treatment have been lamentable, including at least three people who have died who should not have.

As to it being the envy of the world that's a plain lie. I have lived in many countries in Europe and I can tell you from personal experience the NHS is way behind, no country in Europe is envious of the NHS in fact most people think it is atrocious. Otherwise don't you think they would have copied it?

I suggest you look at the Dutch model where everyone has private insurance. You can go anywhere you want, see any doctor you want, go to any hospital you want, seek a second or third or more opinion without be treated as a troublemaker. You can have any treatment you need, there are no waiting lists and the standard of treatment is very high. All this for an insurance policy which costs around 80 pounds a month (much less than you pay in NI if you have a reasonable wage). Nobody is excluded because if you are in a situation where you cannot pay for the insurance the state will pay it for you. The state is involved too in a very small way, they will pay for very expensive cases and exceptional items. The hospitals are mostly run by not for profit trusts. The difference being that they are still paid by the insurance companies for the treatment they provide so they can improve facilities if there are more patients rather than having waiting lists.

This is not to say that there are exceptions nor that the staff try their best, but the way it is funded can never work, you can't make demand fit a budget without having waiting lists, and you can't ever increase the budget enough to meet the demand because it is free so more facilities and staff will create more demand, it's like a dog chasing its tail it will never catch it.

It's time the NHS was abandoned and the UK had a system more suited to the 21st century. It has come to the end of its life, time to have a new system.

Anyone who has close connections with the NHS knows there are money problems - and maybe the most easily addressed is waste.

When tackling the (real) workers randomly - from surgeons to sweepers - most have a view, and the number that comes up most frequently is that 30% of the money they see being spent is being wasted. Professional administrators seem to be able to move from one disaster to another in a culture of revolving door employment (on six figure salaries) that frequently simply defies belief. An overwhelming concern for liability results in massively wasteful procedures that discount common sense and apply to maybe 0.1% of situations.

The last Labour government’s GP contract strategy is widely regarded as one of the biggest "one act" cock-ups of all time for the NHS. Our local surgery was shut for all 4 days over Easter. Not a consultation or pill was on offer; so the local hospital A&E will of course be overwhelmed.

Once again, please do not make this a topic of pseudo-religious dogma and try blame one party. There is much that is good and essential about health care (and the integration with social care) but there is a lot that is horribly mismanaged, and plain wasteful. No politician of any party would wantonly risk doing something calculated to break the NHS. So Ed's crass effort to "weaponize" the NHS is about as meaningless, provocative and unhelpful as anything.

I see that you are trying to set up a new approach to politics. Most people admire the NHS and want it to be free at the point of use. And you would like publicly funded, publicly delivered. That's fine, but dosent the general public have a role to play in this. Don't you need a contract for them to sign, a commitment that they will lead healthier lives. Is it ok to eat large amounts of fast food, processed food, sugar drinks, take little exercise, drink alchol to excess and then expect 20 years later to suffer from a lifestyle diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, liver disease and then the state steps in and takes care of you. Did Bevan anticapate lifestyle disease, when he set up the NHS. What's a healthy diet, ask a grandparent of if you havent got one adopt one! Get them to take you shopping. Just one lifestyle disease, Type 2 diabetes costs £9 billion a year. Dr Phil Hammond states "Politicians can’t fix it (NHS), but patients can". Are Brits compared to say the French getting a little lazy, many not being able to cook, for example? Put more a demand of the people and less on the politican, not everything has to be a decree from parliament. Instead create a groundswell of support for preventive health, get the people to sign a contract.

Thank you for your comments, although many improvements need to be made to the NHS, please refer to your local candidates so we can build up a picture that may help others decide which is the ‘Common Decency' way to vote. Commenting is essential. https://www.commondecency.org.uk/may-7th-2015/2015-candidates-2

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