International evidence suggests that increasing marketisation and privatisation of healthcare services leads to greater expenditure, greater variations in care, reduced access to services, and erosion of professional standards.
Does it really? My word.
Then that would mean that the NHS is the very finest health care system in the world as it is the only one that does not have any marketisation or privatisation. And given that the NHS isn’t better than the French, German, Swedish, Swiss etc health care systems then it’s the assertion that’s wrong, isn’t it?
7 responses so far ↓
1 john b // Mar 4, 2013 at 8:54 am
No, that doesn’t follow at all.
“there is evidence that smoking more leads to greater incidence of cancer” is completely consistent with “the heaviest smoker in the world dies in a car crash aged 100″.
2 Peter Risdon // Mar 4, 2013 at 9:18 am
John’s right.
What is true, though, is that an entirely unsourced and unevidenced assertion like that of Guardian Man can simply be dismissed out of hand.
It’s the fault of people like him that we have the degradation of people lying in their own waste – which I have witnessed first hand – and unnecessary death in the NHS. It’s their actual, direct, personal fault.
Blood on their hands!
3 Joe Blow // Mar 4, 2013 at 9:27 am
It’s one gigantic unapologetic producer whinge.
It’s such a wonder of the world, this piece of secular religious worship has been copied nowhere else.
4 Interested // Mar 4, 2013 at 9:51 am
He’s got a fucking nerve, talking about broken promises.
What about the promise that we will look after you in hospital, we will actually feed you and give you water, and we won’t make you lie in your own piss until you develop agonising bedsores?
Public and patient satisfaction in the NHS at an all-time high prior to the Lansley reforms…?
We are at war with Eurasia.
Also interesting are the comments from ‘bazzxz’ and the reply from ‘amateurdramatic’, the latter telling you all you need to know about left wing guilt and lies, and why this country is irremediably fucked.
5 john b // Mar 4, 2013 at 10:03 am
Yup. If that quote were to link to a study that actually performed a regression on degrees of marketisation across international systems measured in some comparable and quantifiable way, that would be interesting and relevant. As it is, it’s just hot air and bluster.
(I don’t think Peter’s conclusion is justified, though. We know the NHS is about mid-table in healthcare outcomes among developed countries, and that the differences between mid- and top- are not huge. So while the current model does involve preventable deaths, we know based on what happens everywhere else that any plausible model would do the same. Differently allocated, of course, but that doesn’t really matter).
In short: the NHS is OK but not great in terms of both value for money and clinical outcomes; people who think it’s AMAZING WONDERFUL ENVY OF THE WORLD are silly, as are people who think it’s EVIL SOCIALIST KILLING MACHINE.
6 Richard Allan // Mar 4, 2013 at 6:16 pm
I always have to wonder whether people like john b have sense of cognitive dissonance or not. Take hist last post for example: “It’s true that unsourced statements can be ignored. However .” It’s fascinating.
7 John B // Mar 5, 2013 at 2:23 am
Eh?
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