You have reached iGreens.org.uk. In December 2006 we moved to iGreens.org with faster servers and discussion boards. Click here to follow us.
|
You have reached iGreens.org.uk. In December 2006 we moved to iGreens.org with faster servers and discussion boards. Click here to follow us. |
|
Sir, Last week the Prime Minister told a conference of NHS trust chief executives from across England that the NHS is “turning the corner”. If only this were true. Spending on the NHS has increased by a third in real terms in the last four years. Yet there has been little change in the number of patients treated. Over one million people remain on inpatient waiting lists. Services such as accident and emergency have actually deteriorated. Just ten weeks ago the President of the Royal College of Surgeons said of the NHS: “Things are in such a mess, much worse than I would have imagined possible” (report, December 7, 2001). Additional resources are necessary, but they are no panacea. Scotland spends the European average on healthcare and it has even longer waiting lists and poorer standards of health than England. Britain is the only major country in the world that tries
to fund healthcare through the tax system alone. With more flexible systems
other countries are able to spend far more and use resources more efficiently.
Their patients enjoy higher standards of care and greater choice. France has twice as many doctors as we do and there are no waiting lists except for transplant operations. The Government has peremptorily ruled out any alternative
to a solely tax-based system. New ideas are demonised as a threat to the
fundamental principles upon which the NHS was founded. But these important
ideals could underpin a modern national healthcare scheme offering higher
standards of care to all patients. A far greater threat will be a failure
to face up to the NHS’s fundamental flaws. A political slanging match is highly counter-productive and is especially damaging to the morale of hard-working NHS staff. The time has come for a proper national debate on its long-term future. Yours faithfully, KAROL SIKORA Professor of Cancer Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital; Nick Bosanquet, Professor of Health Policy, St.Mary's London; John Spiers; Jim Thornton, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Nottingham University; Roger Williams Professor of Medicine, Kings College Hospital. c/o REFORM, 42 Brook Street, W1K 5DB. info@reformbritain.com February 19. |
|
You have reached iGreens.org.uk. In December 2006 we moved to iGreens.org with faster servers and discussion boards. Click here to follow us.
Send mail to enquiries@igreens.org.uk
with
questions or comments about this web site.
|