Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

David Cameron and the government are right to champion NHS reform. When there is a crisis emergency it is superb, when it goes about its daily business it is shambolic.

Shambolic in the way it wastes the full potential of the dedication and expertise of its medical and nursing staff; shambolic in its relationship with doctors at all levels, few of whom work for it full time; preposterous in its relationship with its patients who are lined up like skittles to wait hour after hour in over-running clinics where appointments are ignored; shambolic in the treatment offered after hours; shambolic in the quality and maintenance of its patient records; weighed down by barmy procedures and rituals and ground down by the weight of layer after layer of clerical bureaucracy. All of this is accepted and allegedly loved by the British people. In fact what they love is that it is actually there and it is free.

When it began is was a social revolution which defined post war society as inclusive and caring. It challenged Communist doctrine by showing that in a free democracy health-care was universal. It is the best thing that Labour ever did. Its nationalisation of everything turned to dust. Its health service went on and on and on. The problem is that so did everything else, yet faster and further. Other countries caught up and overtook. More and more treatments were developed. These cost more and more. People’s life expectancy extended, first by years, then decades.  More and more treatments are needed. More and more care.

What the government proposes is to put the GP back in charge and control of the patient and their care. This is utterly fundamental to proper health care. The Queen has her own doctor, whom she rings when in need. She does not queue up listening to music to be finally connected to a ‘duty doctor’, with whom she has no connection and has never met and who knows nothing about her. Nor does she find herself sent off to a clinic weeks later for an appointment at 10 a.m. to be seen at 12.30. Neither is she regaled with targets and delays, mission statements and complaints procedures.

Ah, you say, but Her Majesty pays. Indeed so. But so do we all. Over £100 billion a year and rising. There is absolutely no reason why everyone should not have the same deal as the Queen. To achieve that we have to change the relationship between the patient and the NHS, to the patient and their doctor. Next we have to change the NHS from a process to a facility. Third we have to change the way we pay for it, because the present method does not work as it should.

The Government has made a start. There is a long way to go. Whether we go there depends on how well the government handles this first element. No more cock-ups. All the goodwill has been spent on broken promises,  about turns and silly nostrums. Screw the NHS and the voters will not forgive. It has to be right. First time.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 17th, 2011 at 7:53 pm and is filed under Malcolm Blair Robinson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.