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Ok I studied the NHS as part of my higher Modern Studies topic this year, and it seems to be getting worse and worse, so the question is - what do we do about it?
For those who don't know:
the NHS was founded in 1948 by a Labour Government, who beleived that health care should be free for everyone at point of use...they wanted to eradicate health divisions between social classes.
The theory was that if a National Health Service was set up, people would eventually become healthier and the NHS would not be needed as much....not the case tho! Costs, scandels and dirty hospitals have made Labour promise to reform it.....
Any ideas? Privatisation? Abolish the NHS? Raise taxes?
If any one has any questions about the NHS i'll try my best to answer :)
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Undermining every Idealists' dream is a capitalists' scheme.
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:rolleyes:
Hi Hobbes!
:D
you've always got an answer! :)
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The NHS.....
Now that IS a can of worms.
Unfortunately every time you reform, you create more administration, and its the cost of the administration that precludes paying Nurses (etc) a decent wage.
As they cant recruite nurses (etc) for the crap wages (for what they do) then the whole hospital slows down, so they have to contract out to Private Hospitals (or even abroad) to try and get the waiting lists down to meet the governments targets (which costs more, and so causes more budget problems).
We had a Health Service that was the envy of the world, until Thatcher got her hands on it....
The Government ploughs money into it saying that this money cannot be used for staff wages....as its staff shortages which cause most of the problems, all of this extra money gets wasted in contracting out...which is slower and costs more.
Im sorry, I know the NHS has great problems....but 90% of them are CAUSED by the government of the day getting involved in reform.
I have every respect for the Junior Doctors and Nurses working in the service.
NB:
Not for the money grabbing Consultants using the NHS, as a way of refering patients to themselves in their Private Practices......leeching the money out of the service.
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The government is always looking at how to cut costs....one of the problems is the drug bill in my opinion, as well as the government just generally mismanaging the whole system!
So we can't reform cos that costs money....but something had to be done otherwise our NHS goes down the plug anyway? Hmmm...glad I'm not Mr Blair!
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I have yet to find any way to Invest by cutting costs.
Shame, could make a million by sharing that secret ;)
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:lol:
We could think up a solution right now and sell it to the Government! :P
Maybe we should encourage private health treatment a bit more -
more people use Private treatment = less people use the NHS but still have to pay texes for i!
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I only wish that we americans could come up with something like National Healthcare. It just makes so much sense. I for one am always in favor of higher taxes, but right now I think that it would be better to rethink how America/Britain spend their money. I am not sure how much you guys spend on your military, but I bet it's way too much, just like us, we are the epitemy of overspending. Why not take half of what we spend on the military and put it into things like National Health Care. Sure, maybe some kid back home won't get to bomb the sh*t out of some terrorists with a remote control drone, but atleast your grandmother can get the healthcare she needs.
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Its not always the actual reforming that cause more money to be wasted its the -ing stupid people who want accountability for everything which leads to more paperwork and more manhours wasted. I reckon we should have a little more faith in medical practitioners. Obviously theres other factors like the aging population and the increasing cost and variety of drugs. And about the military, yes we probably spend too much, I think we had first or second highest % of GDP spent on arms (in developed countries) around 23billion a year. But we've got a nuclear fleet and a world class army to maintain.
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WeeMouse
Do you think that it's the thatcherite years that screwed it over with 16 years of cronic underfunding and the development of an anti tax culture that makes this such a problem for Blair
The NHS needs billions now to turn it around and repair the damage that the tories did to it. massive infrostructure investment and huge increases in staffing are essential.
but with peoples pennypinching attitude to tax who is prepared to pay.
The answer seems simple
you pay your money you get your choice.
How does that equate to the research you have done WeeMouse
and what are the hidden issues with respect to this we don't hear about?
Neil