How a new deal for public health can help build a healthier nation - Policy Exchange

[dun_n_dusted]

In that case we’d have an Hepatitis C epidemic because it costs between £50-80K to treat, per person. Before we know it instead of getting rid of it we’d have massive numbers in liver failure within 20 years.
these are the problems when you cut things by not thinking them through.
cuts to drug services now mean massive amounts of deaths, largest in Europe and with that comes disease. It’s Newton’s law really.

I don't follow. A Hep C outbreak would initially be picked up by GPs who inform the NHS. Treatment provided by NHS as Hep C isn't a "frill".

Tits & arrse enlargement/reduction is a frill to me, cosmetic surgery because of damage to someones face or birth defect I wouldn't class as a frill.

And yes it's a minefield which is why no government would ever consider it as they'd get slaughtered.

 

[jarrod248]

I don't follow. A Hep C outbreak would initially be picked up by GPs who inform the NHS. Treatment provided by NHS as Hep C isn't a "frill".

Tits & arrse enlargement/reduction is a frill to me, cosmetic surgery because of damage to someones face or birth defect I wouldn't class as a frill.

And yes it's a minefield which is why no government would ever consider it as they'd get slaughtered.

People can have it and be a asymptomatic though, often migrants, drug users or passed on by sex.
cosmetic procedures are rarely carried out on the NHS.

 

[dun_n_dusted]

People can have it and be a asymptomatic though, often migrants, drug users or passed on by sex.
cosmetic procedures are rarely carried out on the NHS.

Wouldn't argue the first point, would the second particularly breast enlargement/reduction and tatoo removal. A certain female I'm very well aqainted with had both, quite a few years ago now though so things may have changed.

 

[jarrod248]

Wouldn't argue the first point, would the second particularly breast enlargement/reduction and tatoo removal. A certain female I'm very well aqainted with had both, quite a few years ago now though so things may have changed.

Probably has changed as it’s very difficult even to get tonsils out now. My friend had very large breasts, chronic back, neck and shoulder pain, she’d to get a loan to have hers reduced.

 

[jarrod248]

I think it’s five instances of tonsillitis in a year to get them out locally so it’s basically no. Varicose veins pretty much the same. We’ve to send an individual funding request to the commissioning group who then says no.

 

[oscar1whisky]

But would you refuse NHS treatment if you were in a road accident or had a heart attack?

I read the report quickly last night. I thought the thrust was that we need to educate people that health is not an all or nothing thing. Too many think that you are 100% healthy, then become ill, then have acute treatment, and are then 100% healthy.

We need more preventative measures, and more rehabilitation. However as it is difficult to measure non acute measures using simple statistics they do not have the same political capital as hospital waiting times and the like.

By the way, one of the objectives for the NHS when it was set up was to provide a healthy workforce. More preventative medicine and more rehabilitation would further that aim, and allow people to be more productive.

Then they need to start with their own staff.

 

[Listy]

Firstly the NHS isn’t free. We all pay for it through taxation. Everyone pays tax so everyone is entitled to treatment.

That doesn’t mean we should cater for health tourists etc but that’s another issue.

Those who want to see the NHS dismantled have an agenda that they actually aren’t shouting from the rooftops.

Much of the so called public sector is being turned into a free for all for the private sector to cherry pick lucrative pickings from.

Just look at what’s happening with the coronavirus pandemic. We have a comprehensive infrastructure in the UK ideally placed to operate the necessary machinery to ensure a successful response to the pandemic.

That organisation has comprehensive local knowledge of the area it is responsible for. It has extensive links to the various communities that reside in it’s area. It has established links with the various agencies that need to be a part of the response. It’s has a comprehensive structure that would easily and quickly set up the necessary organisation to carry out the work, it has the necessary infrastructure already in place in which to carry out the necessary activity or can utilise facilities in it’s area at the drop of a hat and it also has extensive links with the national agencies including the government itself.

I’m talking about local authorities. Over five hundred of them all over the country already in place who would easily have undertaken the local response in each of their areas and would have been a huge asset if they had been properly funded and utilised for this work.

Instead, we’ve peed 18 billion quid up against the wall trying to get the private sector to do the job and it’s been a fiasco from the start. We’ve made a small group of people extremely rich on public money largely based on the fact that they have personal links to a government minister or an MP, or a Lord or even just to a government advisor. Make a phone call or two to a friend and hey presto. Enough money in the bank to keep yourself, your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren etc etc in rich luxury wanting for nothing for the rest of their lives all on public money (our money) and a huge chunk of that has happened without any competition or tendering process whatsoever.

Local authorities would have done the job properly and at a fraction of the price.

And now of course with all these billions now residing in bank accounts very likely in tax free havens abroad, we need to replace it so watch the various taxes go up starting with what looks like a public sector pay freeze.

This government have taken the public for mugs and and no doubt, as things start to get back on a more even keel and and events move on, those responsible for this huge giveaway will start to see the benefits of their largess to their friends filter back to them in various ways.

They want to do the same thing with the health sector. The strategy is how do they turn health into profit. That’s once again public money going into private bank accounts. Well there are several ways to do it.

Once again, if you look around the health sector, you will see large chunks of it being carried out by private companies. It’s been going on for some time but I think recent events will embolden the government to act faster. The general public have largely been unaware of what’s been happening but the spectre of many billions of pounds of public money being chucked into the private sector doesn’t seem to have upset them and the government may take this as a sign that they can up the ante on where the money ends up.

The other thing to look out for is that when people start to decry the NHS as unfit for purpose and it needs scrapping and replacing with something that works better, what they are really sayings is, we want to privatise healthcare completely.

It’s the American model. Everybody who has a medical problem pays for everything. Everybody is expected to pay health insurance premiums to private health insurance companies. It’s about putting your money into the bank accounts of those who will do the minimum they legally need to do in return for your money.

They don’t want to pay out. They just want to take it off you and if you are taken ill, god help you that you can get what you need without having to sell your home if you are lucky enough to own it and if you are not able to pay either health insurance premiums or for healthcare when you do need it, kiss your backside goodbye because you won’t be long for this world.

So ideas like the one posted here in the start of this thread need seriously kicking well out beyond the touchline because they aren’t actually about healthcare. They’re about your money and who’s bank account it ends up in!

You do know that local Authorities are managing the response to the CV19 pandemic don't you? I'd be curious to whaty ou think the local government could do that's been pawned off on private business. Equally, there's been a fairly big chunk of cash thrown at the local councils for the CV19 response.

 

[Fang_Farrier]

We also have a large number of UK health tourists going abroad for various procedures such as dental implants, breast augmentation, cosmetic surgery.
They are going to various parts of the world, Europe and Asia.

However upon return the maintenance and any repairs or corrections are being picked up by NHS.

 

[Tyk]

While there's certainly huge room for improvement on people taking more responsibility for their own health (guilty as charged here), the NHS suffers from some glaring problems that need a dose of looking at.

Trusts - These were a damn silly idea as a way to resolve the mis-management of the NHS. We now have an insane number of business models, management styles and above all highly expensive executives. The Trusts add no competitiveness just a wasted cost burden.
Purchasing - No proper use of the immense procurement power of the NHS, just look at the absurdity around PPE recently for an example.
Information - There are a bewildering range of incompatible and disjointed systems for getting vital information around, every trust and GP practice has the power to buy from any supplier and there are projects going to hell in a handbasket because the basic intercommunication requirements aren't established let alone met. Try getting your medical records in a different trust area, it's a complete pain.
Political Football - No need to elaborate on that one, we're all aware how much of a fustercluck it is.

The entire management structure needs a damn good sorting out, the staff at the medical end do their jobs, but money is pissed up the wall in industrial quantities due to the inefficiencies and stupid organisation. It's not a joined up service it's an avoidable money pit.

I have no objection to the free healthcare for all (for UK taxpayers obviously, tourists and illegals can pay) principle, paid for by taxation, I do object to the idiotic inefficiencies many of which have been created for political purposes.