There are likely to be a number of reasons for the coronavirus lockdown - fragile political confidence in the NHS is probably one of them.
16th place, 728 points. A 2014 survey to the public of the UK, asking about “What is the essence of being British?” got the most common response “Having access to the NHS”. Nevertheless, the UK healthcare system has never made it into the top 10 of the EHCI, mainly due to poor Accessibility (in 2018 only beating Ireland on this sub-discipline) and an autocratic top-down management culture(?). The country, which once created the Bletchley Park code-breaking institution would do well to study the style of management of professional specialists created there4 ! Mediocre Outcomes of the British healthcare system have been improving, but in the absence of real excellence, the tightened 2017 criteria puts the U.K. on par with Estonia and the Czech Republic in the middle of the field.
6 comments:
Yes, I think this is the main reason. Given that people who definitely have the virus seem to recover quickly (Prince Charles) or carry on working (Boris); and that the tabloids are desperate for their first celeb death, this is looking similar to flu. And the really bad thing about flu is that it tends to kill elderly and vulnerable people in an embarrassing, capacity-bustibg peak.
My guess is that our doctors and nurses really are doing a great job. But I can't help feeling sad that the UK defines itself, thoughtlessly and automatically, in terms of the NHS. What on earth do foreigners make if it, I wonder. It's like being proud of your national grid, or your furniture.
Access is indeed the achilles heel of the NHS, it simply cannot or will not cope with core requirements and it is the front line GP 'service' which is the worst example, under Cameron the then health secretary said when answering questions about poor GP services, 'we should all have the right of choice when using GPs and he would ensure we could change.
He was obviously on something at the time as the service has deteriorated, cut back on what it offers, denied people appointments with doctors even with serious ailments, and the choice is non existent as they all or nearly all refuse to take on patients outside their postcode.
If any area of the NHS is ripe for wholesale change it is the GP service, and that is not even taking into account incompetence the shifting of procedures they should be doing onto the hospitals, and yes I have had first hand experience of this in recent times, the change in attitude of the way GPs operate today as against even twenty years ago is enormous.
Giving GPs a tax break on their pensions will not solve anything.
In our experience the GP service has definitely deteriorated but as a result of micromanagement from within the NHS. Overall I stick to my view that the NHS is a top-heavy and self-serving bureaucracy which has been allowed to lose sight of its raison d'etre.
Sam - yes and it must be mildly embarrassing that a number of high profile people seem to have recovered fairly quickly. You are probably right, the tabloids are desperate for their first celeb death.
Wiggia - that's our experience, poor GP services are the main problem. Standards seem to vary widely across the country too. I recently received far better service on holiday than I would here.
Jannie - it's probably too big to manage effectively. I tend to see the Labour party as the major problem - it doesn't seem to want the NHS to be changed in any fundamental way because the party makes too much political capital from it.
Countries as diverse as Denmark, austria switzeand and Australia do not attempt to run a national service.
They all score more highly on health indices.
The core of the problem is " National", there would be much more satisfiction with real local control i.e. at canton level as in Switzerland.
Of course if we want a proper 1st world health service like Japan or Switzerland, we will have to accept that there is a much greater role to be played by patient choice and the private sector.
Nessimmersion - I agree. It's a pity we don't copy another system because that should be easy enough to sell as a policy.
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