[MD] Privatised medicine? No thanks

[Ant McWatt]

Ant McWatt observed April 23rd:

Beyond the Talk Radio smokescreen, it appears to me that you don't want the 
results of your own pet political ideas (i.e. the ideas of those right-wing 
business gurus who advised Thatcher in the first place to privatise the NHS) 
re-imported back to the US and who can blame you!

Platt then commented April 23rd:

>You can try to
>spin what are obviously shortcomings of the NHS as the fault of Thatcher

Ant McWatt comments:

I wouldn't call the analysis of relevant information and obtaining the 
complete picture of a particular scenario, spin.

For instance, as we saw in the example you cited from the Independent 
newspaper concerning the death of Ms Christian from the privatisation of the 
UK's GP out-of-hours service (rather than a publicly owned service as you 
first thought), it was you who was spinning.  Let's remind ourselves of what 
the coroner stated in this case:

"The nurse [from the privatised Primecare out-of-hours service] had 'totally 
failed' to deal with the case. 'Had Ms Christian been seen by a doctor at 
this stage ... it is surely inevitable that she would have been admitted,' 
he said. Even at this stage it was likely her life would have been saved, he 
added."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2444479.ece

As I noted previously, when the GP out-of-hours service was publicly funded 
(as it was pre-Thatcher) it would have been a _doctor_ who would have 
usually spoken to or visited a patient such as Ms Christian.  Whichever way 
_you_ care to spin it, it was the privatised nature of the out-of-hours 
service that ultimately resulted in this poor woman's death i.e. the 
_immoral_ cutting of costs for profits by using a nurse instead of a doctor 
to provide critical medical advice.

Having finally found that Guardian article you cited yesterday, it therefore 
comes as no surprize that the following is stated about the privatisation of 
NHS services:


Unison [the trade union representing NHS workers] has also scheduled a 
national demonstration against further privatisation and marketisation in 
the NHS on October 13.

A government minister was barracked by Unison members yesterday as he tried 
to defend the government's policies on the NHS, including pay.

Hilary Benn, the international development secretary and a deputy Labour 
leadership contender, was forced onto the back foot by delegates who accused 
the government of running a campaign to privatise the health service.

The hostile reception is a foretaste of the rough ride health minister Andy 
Burnham is expected to receive over pay and healthcare reforms when he makes 
his address to the Unison conference on Tuesday.

Platform speakers pointed to a series of reports which found that 
privatisation - such as independent treatment centres - were inefficient and 
wasteful.

Delegate Martin Booth told the conference: "Whatever Mr Benn or any other 
government minister says, there are whole areas of the NHS in serious crisis 
because of this government's determination to privatise and marketise the 
NHS."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2063562,00.html

Platt, maybe you should attend next year's conference to tell the ignorant 
NHS workers about how great privatised healthcare actually is?

>but I'll let the articles speak for themselves.

That's a shortcoming on your part as they don't help your case.  For 
instance, let's remind you of one phrase found in the above article: 
"Platform speakers pointed to a series of reports which found that 
privatisation - such as independent treatment centres - were inefficient and 
wasteful."

>As for the rest, your anecdotal sob story [about the lack of proper medical 
>care for many people >living near the minimum wage level in the US] is 
>touching.


A bit like Ms Christian's story, no doubt?

Best wishes,

Anthony


.

_________________________________________________________________
Don’t quit your job – Take Classes Online and Earn your Degree in 1 year. 
Start Today! 
http://www.classesusa.com/clickcount.cfm?id=866146&goto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.classesusa.com%2Ffeaturedschools%2Fonlinedegreesmp%2Fform-dyn1.html%3Fsplovr%3D866144