NHS

Aside from Dr Goyal's Twitter/X histrionics...

The first duty of any private company, in law, is not to provide whatever service it is contracted to provide, but to make money for its shareholders.

Why should any public service, be it health, education, defence and security or whatever, have to have a proportion of its funding syphoned off to pay dividends to investors?

Why am I opposed to private companies / partial privatisation in our NHS


The NHS was born out of a post war era where people joined savings clubs in case they needed a doctor, and where many poorer people were frightend of becoming ill. There was no community health, no district nurses or midwives and no school nurses.

The idea was that a state owned National Health Service would provide health care for all, for poor and rich, and from the cradle to the grave, free at the point of care, paid for by employee contributions.

A classic example of privatised health care is the local "GP Centre" where doctors are not employed by the NHS, instead they are self employed, and the GP Centre is not owned by the NHS, but instead owned by the "Group Practice".

Essentialy these are private businesses who are paid Per Patient and Per Consultation

The question is this : ARE THESE GROUP PRACTICES FOCUSED ON MAKING MONEY - OR - ARE THEY FOCUSED ON PROVIDING HEALTH CARE. ?

At my local Group Practice its extremely difficult te get to speak to anyone on a telephone, the system is automated to save money.

At my local Group Practice, its hard to get an appointment, the average wait time is two to three weeks

At my local Group Practice, they persuade you to have a consultation over the telephone, or perhaps by video link to a GP from a private company called "Push Doctors".

At my local Group Practice, you no longer have YOUR doctor, you see whoever might be available, usually a practice nurse as opposed to a GP, and if you do see a GP, the appointment is time limited.

The entire feel about the local Group Practice is that its all about time and money, YOU are not important, YOU feel like a nuisance, and you are told what you can, and cannot do, you are herded, take it or leave it attitude.

Todays GPs at a Group Practice may refer you to another private enterprise, such as "New Medica" a chain of eye clinics owned by the same family who own SpecSavers, Doug and Mary Perkins are amongst the richest people in the country.

To what benefit ( unseen or known ) do self employed GPs get from refering patients to particular private enterprises, is it true to say that where theres money to be made, theres always the possibility of corruption.

WHY has profit got to be an ingredient of what is supposed to be a public service ?

Would a private company employed to clean a hospital, cut corners in order to become more efficient - efficient often meaning "more profitable".

The bottom line is that in an essential, frontline public service, no one should be profiting, and it certainly makes for a worse service.

It was Tony Blair who was chiefly responsible for partial privatisation of GP Practices, and I did not agree with it then, and I do not agree with it now.

I am pleased that Keir Starmer is now talking about ending the self employed status of NHS GPs, I just hope that if he becomes PM, he will bring GPs back into full NHS control.

It is fairly easy to work out how the NHS has ended up in such a mess, politics is the simple answer.