Letter to Editor: The slow but sure privatisation of the NHS in Harlow
General / Sat 18th Mar 2023 at 11:20am
Dear Editor,
IMAGINE, suspecting you have broken a bone, not immediately life threatening or worrying infection and are in pain, you ring the doctor or go to PAH. The receptionist says “Sorry you are no longer a patient here so we can’t see you but we can put you on an NHS waiting list”.
You ask “How long must I wait?”
“Not sure” replies the receptionist, “Possibly as little as a year ”
“What if I go private? ” you say.
“What time would you like to come along this afternoon? It’s £180 for a consultation and additional charges depending on treatment”
Is the reply.
Totally unimaginable?
It happened today in Harlow NHS dentistry, and not just at one practice, a close relative has a painful dental problem.
The NHS website, updated daily, today says there’s No Dental Practices in Harlow taking new NHS patients and recommends four others, one 131 miles away.
It’s not just dental but the medical service.
Another close relative needing a diagnostic scan: NHS hospital said, “when we get round to it” possibly 8 months. “What if I pay?” Answer “Come in next Monday.”
Mental Health, endometriosis, autism, a worse situation. Ten years so far and still nothing apart from being given happy pills and women told to think about walking in the woods and nice things.
There’s clearly no problem with accommodating or seeing patients very promptly or dentists, and private practices so we look to the statement from the NHS that explains that dentists cannot afford to provide a service for NHS patients because they aren’t paid sufficiently well to meet their costs.
It’s called privatisation by stealth, a strategy attributed to Maggie Thatcher and remarkably apparently continued by Tony Blair.
If the direction of travel isn’t reversed then as previous generations have told us, in the 1930s and 20s pre war, many people avoided sending for a doctor, they could not afford it.
It’s said that an indication of the health of a nation can be judged by the state of people’s teeth and the roads.
Well, we know what the roads are like: tried to get a NHS dentist lately?”
Name and email address supplied
Barry Rogers
2023-03-18 14:51:17
What a load of c**p. Dentist may be a problem ? However we’ve accessed both GP and hospital services and I’ve no real issue with either. OK there may be some times when they are not 100% perfect but we manage and accept slightly less than 100%. I and mine are still here and healthy.
Clive sims
2023-03-18 15:59:52
The following is from the office for national statistics. “ UK general government gross debt was £2,223.0 billion at the end of March 2021, equivalent to 103.7% of gross domestic product (GDP).” Gov debt has been steadily rising from 85% of gdp since 2016. Put simply we are no longer rich enough as a nation to provide the services we want. We either have to grow the economy more( work harder and smarter) or reduce the level of services.
Cllr Michael Hardware
2023-03-18 17:51:14
When I was referred to ENT earlier this year I was seen at PAH within a week, and had my MRI there within two weeks. Hearing test and hearing aids completed and provided within a month.
Cllr James Griggs (Lab)
2023-03-18 17:56:56
Clive Sims. There is money available, this is still a very wealthy country, it’s just the location of the money that’s the problem. It’s becoming concentrated in the hands of even fewer people as each year passes. I’m not opposed to growth or people earning well from their entrepreneurial achievements but with that wealth comes responsibility. Hiding it offshore and avoiding paying taxes in the country where the wealth is generated is morally reprehensible and leads to the managed decline of services and the state of the nation. The recent forecast of a significant fall in living standards is just one sign of an economy that is being managed for the select few and not for the greater good of the population. We need a change of government and a change of morals at the heart of government. If the health of the nation is allowed to decline in this way it tells you all you need to know about those who control the means to address the problem.
Clive sims
2023-03-18 18:33:59
All I am saying is if you spend more than you earn then things will go wrong and choices will have to be made. The gov takes about 47% of gdp in tax, up from a historical average of about 33%. Even if it collects 100% of gdp we would still have problems as the government is spending more than the nation earns. As for your idea of taxing the super rich, do you really think that for example the American government would have done as much good with Bill Gates money than Bill Gates foundation. The reason a lot of the super rich avoid tax is because they believe they can do better than the governments with the money( I am not saying they can do better, just that they believe they can)Also a lot of so called super rich do not have much cash as their wealth is tied up in their business ventures. For example Elon Musk sells his shares in Tesla to pay his taxes, because he is not sitting on a huge mountain of cash. If these people pay more in tax then they just reduce their business interests to access cash, which ultimately affects the people who work for them. Also it is worth remembering that taxing the rich more just results in a smaller percentage of people carrying the bulk of the tax burden, which ultimately gives them more power than they already have over the rest of us.
Edward
2023-03-19 10:13:00
The author's account rings many bells: a relative of mine needs two new knees, was told to wait 15 years ago because the knees they would fit would wear out. 5 years ago imobility and pain so bad they pushed for treatment again long delays but told at £15,000 per knee they could get them done virtually immediately. Ironically they had a critical appointment last week, cancelled due to a doctors strike. The uk has become a two tier society if your rich and can afford private healthcare and education, to coin a well loved quote "the world's your lobster Rodney ". Otherwise join the queues. And checking out the assertion that both Thatcher and Blair saw that privatisation by stealth seems to be true, there's hundreds of studies (Pollock A. Privatisation by stealth? Health Visit. 1995 Mar;68(3):98-9. PMID: 7730091.) it doesn't seem to occur to our ruling class that far more could be achieved to improve the health of the nation could be achieved by investing in preventative measures.
Edward Vine
2023-03-19 10:15:29
The author's account rings many bells: a relative of mine needs two new knees, was told to wait 15 years ago because the knees they would fit would wear out. 5 years ago imobility and pain so bad they pushed for treatment again long delays but told at £15,000 per knee they could get them done virtually immediately. Ironically they had a critical appointment last week, cancelled due to a doctors strike. The uk has become a two tier society if your rich and can afford private healthcare and education, to coin a well loved quote "the world's your lobster Rodney ". Otherwise join the queues. And checking out the assertion that both Thatcher and Blair saw that privatisation by stealth seems to be true, there's hundreds of studies (Pollock A. Privatisation by stealth? Health Visit. 1995 Mar;68(3):98-9. PMID: 7730091.) it doesn't seem to occur to our ruling class that far more could be achieved to improve the health of the nation could be achieved by investing in preventative measures.
Trevor Pyle
2023-03-20 07:40:51
Former Health Minister Savid Javid, who is now deeply in bed with American health insurance companies and collecting a huge salary above his MPs pay, recently punted the idea that we should all pay £25 for a GP visit and £75 if we go to A&E. It's the first shot in the determination of Tory government to come out publically on the privatisation of the NHS. Labour raised investment in the NHS by 6% a year. Under successive Tory governments that figure dropped to 1.5 %. The impact of under investment is there for us all to see.
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