I have been blessed virtually all my life with pretty excellent health, for which I thank God. My various local GPs over the years have dealt well with those little problems which afflict us all from time to time, and my only visit to A&E, some 30 years ago to remove a small piece of grit that had lodged itself behind my eyelid, was a speedy and satisfactory affair.
About a month ago, my GP decided to refer me to a specialist concerning a minor irritation the details of which I won't bother my readers with. I was informed I would be contacted to arrange an appointment within two weeks. I wasn't. Eventually, a letter arrived telling me to book an appointment using the "Choose and Book" system. I opted to make the booking on-line. The two hospitals in the area which gave any idea of how long I would have to wait for an appointment showed waiting times of a couple of months. I decided to choose a nearby hospital which didn't specify a waiting period (and which is accessible from my home without negotiating the nightmare road systems of Gloucester and Cheltenham.) Fine, said the on-line message. "Our contract with you requires us to be in touch by 25th June." No one contacted me by that date. I rang up a couple of days later and was told the appointment process has been activated by the hospital and I should make contact with them. I was given a number to ring, but when I rang this number, I was informed that the hospital was unable to book its own appointments. Next, I tried to do it on line, but couldn't use the "choose and book" reference as it was no longer part of the "choose and book" system, so I had to give up with this idea too! Eventually after three phone calls during which, I confess I was unable to disguise my frustration, I have finally arranged my appointment - for Friday 30th August! I have long ago expected mediocrity to be the norm with the NHS, but such a lengthy wait still came as rather a shock.
Dear Reader, you may be bored with all the above details, but I can assure you, putting up with all these frustrations and delays is no fun. An old schoolfriend of mine assured me that I would be less supportive of privaitising healthcare if I had to use its services more. Well, I'm afraid the opposite is true. The mindless bureaucracy I have encountered makes me more convinced than ever that the NHS is not fit for purpose.
It was heralded as "Free at the point of delivery". It isn't. Someone has to pay for it. That someone is you and I, the British taxpayer. We are not only paying the wages of the doctors, nurses, receptionists and so on, but also those of an army of bureaucrats in the Department of Health, of extra admin staff in the hospital trusts who deal with the demands of the DoH officials and the government, along with "Equality and Diversity" training, as all public bodies have to show themselves to be politically correct. Furthermore, as our payments through taxation and National Insurance (which amount to the same thing) are linked only to our income and not to our health, age or degree of responsibility, we who seek to live responsibly are subsidising the irresponsible and the immoral of this country as well as the well-publicised abusers of the system from overseas.
To criticise the NHS is to expose oneself to claims of hard-heartedness. How dare I criticse our hard-working nurses! I'm not. I did work for some 15 months on an NHS project, and during that time, I met many fine and dedicated healthcare professionals, but they would be equally fine and dedicated healthcare professionals if the NHS was privatised. Indeed, I think they would perform better. NHS dentistry has all but disappeared in some places, as dentists decided unilaterally to withdraw en bloc from NHS work except for children and the elderly. When our dentist in Sussex went private, after an unhappy experience with an alternative NHS dentist, I took a deep breath and returned to our original dentist as a private patient. The improvement in service she was able to offer free of NHS bureaucracy and target-setting was immediately noticeable. I am sure that GPs and hospitals alike would benefit from being cut free from NHS control. Let's face it, no private business would survive that degenerated to the level of inefficiency I and many others have had to endure from the NHS. As for payment, why not give people the chance to opt out of the NHS by allowing them to pay a lower rate of tax if they sign up to a private healthcare insurance scheme?
The NHS has often been called the closest thing we have to a national religion. If so, I'm afraid I rank as one of the incorrigible heretics. However, it's not just waiting lists and bureaucracy which are slowly changing public opinion. The recent widely publicised scandals at some NHS trusts have opened a number of people's eyes regarding the damage which has been done to our healthcare service by giving the state such a say in its running. As James Kirkup recently wrote in the Daily Telegraph. "In an age of heresy, could the NHS eventually join that list of fallen idols? It's unlikely, but not unthinkable. That ringfence may not stand forever."
About a month ago, my GP decided to refer me to a specialist concerning a minor irritation the details of which I won't bother my readers with. I was informed I would be contacted to arrange an appointment within two weeks. I wasn't. Eventually, a letter arrived telling me to book an appointment using the "Choose and Book" system. I opted to make the booking on-line. The two hospitals in the area which gave any idea of how long I would have to wait for an appointment showed waiting times of a couple of months. I decided to choose a nearby hospital which didn't specify a waiting period (and which is accessible from my home without negotiating the nightmare road systems of Gloucester and Cheltenham.) Fine, said the on-line message. "Our contract with you requires us to be in touch by 25th June." No one contacted me by that date. I rang up a couple of days later and was told the appointment process has been activated by the hospital and I should make contact with them. I was given a number to ring, but when I rang this number, I was informed that the hospital was unable to book its own appointments. Next, I tried to do it on line, but couldn't use the "choose and book" reference as it was no longer part of the "choose and book" system, so I had to give up with this idea too! Eventually after three phone calls during which, I confess I was unable to disguise my frustration, I have finally arranged my appointment - for Friday 30th August! I have long ago expected mediocrity to be the norm with the NHS, but such a lengthy wait still came as rather a shock.
Dear Reader, you may be bored with all the above details, but I can assure you, putting up with all these frustrations and delays is no fun. An old schoolfriend of mine assured me that I would be less supportive of privaitising healthcare if I had to use its services more. Well, I'm afraid the opposite is true. The mindless bureaucracy I have encountered makes me more convinced than ever that the NHS is not fit for purpose.
It was heralded as "Free at the point of delivery". It isn't. Someone has to pay for it. That someone is you and I, the British taxpayer. We are not only paying the wages of the doctors, nurses, receptionists and so on, but also those of an army of bureaucrats in the Department of Health, of extra admin staff in the hospital trusts who deal with the demands of the DoH officials and the government, along with "Equality and Diversity" training, as all public bodies have to show themselves to be politically correct. Furthermore, as our payments through taxation and National Insurance (which amount to the same thing) are linked only to our income and not to our health, age or degree of responsibility, we who seek to live responsibly are subsidising the irresponsible and the immoral of this country as well as the well-publicised abusers of the system from overseas.
To criticise the NHS is to expose oneself to claims of hard-heartedness. How dare I criticse our hard-working nurses! I'm not. I did work for some 15 months on an NHS project, and during that time, I met many fine and dedicated healthcare professionals, but they would be equally fine and dedicated healthcare professionals if the NHS was privatised. Indeed, I think they would perform better. NHS dentistry has all but disappeared in some places, as dentists decided unilaterally to withdraw en bloc from NHS work except for children and the elderly. When our dentist in Sussex went private, after an unhappy experience with an alternative NHS dentist, I took a deep breath and returned to our original dentist as a private patient. The improvement in service she was able to offer free of NHS bureaucracy and target-setting was immediately noticeable. I am sure that GPs and hospitals alike would benefit from being cut free from NHS control. Let's face it, no private business would survive that degenerated to the level of inefficiency I and many others have had to endure from the NHS. As for payment, why not give people the chance to opt out of the NHS by allowing them to pay a lower rate of tax if they sign up to a private healthcare insurance scheme?
The NHS has often been called the closest thing we have to a national religion. If so, I'm afraid I rank as one of the incorrigible heretics. However, it's not just waiting lists and bureaucracy which are slowly changing public opinion. The recent widely publicised scandals at some NHS trusts have opened a number of people's eyes regarding the damage which has been done to our healthcare service by giving the state such a say in its running. As James Kirkup recently wrote in the Daily Telegraph. "In an age of heresy, could the NHS eventually join that list of fallen idols? It's unlikely, but not unthinkable. That ringfence may not stand forever."