NHS Privatisation

To save its NHS, Scotland must end the failing union

What John McClellan misses in his requiem for the ‘old NHS’ is that successive UK governments have, through a combination of repeated top down restructuring by politicians who are clueless about how to run a public health service and consistent underfunding, the NHS has been set up to fail.

This provides the perfect excuse for the UK government to throw up its hands and say, “Well, we tried, so the only option is to let the private sector take over from here.”

This is the privatisation formula Noam Chomsky articulated:

“There’s a standard way of privatising something…. When Margaret Thatcher wanted to privatise the railroads, the technique was de-fund them, and then when they don’t work, people get angry, they say let’s do something, so they hand it over to private enterprise which totally ruins them and then the state has to come back in - big cost and try to reconstruct it somehow. It’s known as privatisation.”

As part of this privatisation pantomime, the puffed up and incompetent Wes Streeting has launched yet another public consultation on the NHS’ future.

Health commentator Roy Lilley gave his two cents on what should be done:

·       Shift towards preventive care to reduce the burden of preventable diseases

·       Increase funding and expand capacity in primary and community care services.

·       Improve access to mental health services.

·       Better recruitment, training, and retention strategies to ensure a sustainable workforce.

·       Leverage technology to improve service delivery, patient care, and operational efficiency.

·       Promote integrated care through closer collaboration between NHS services, local authorities, and social care providers.

·       Address disparities in health outcomes among different populations and regions.

·       Enhance early detection and treatment of cancer to improve survival rates.

·       Deliver more individualised care, giving patients greater control over their own health and treatment.  

·       Focus on improving care pathways, prevention, and early intervention to manage long-term conditions effectively.

·       Improve hospital efficiency, reduce delays, and increase capacity for elective surgeries.

This is common sense, which is why it won’t happen and why the ‘old NHS’ - whose mission to offer free at the point of use medical care for all citizens - will be a thing of the past. The corporate takeover of government will be complete. And we shall all be sicker and poorer as a result.

It’s pretty clear what Scotland needs to do to escape this fate.

Leah Gunn Barrett

22/04/24

As published in 'Dear Scotland': https://dearscotland.substack.com/p/nhs-privatisation-has-been-the-goal