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What The ....... ?

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youngmafbog | 09:24 Mon 31st Mar 2014 | News
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http://news.sky.com/story/1234404/patients-should-pay-10-nhs-membership-fee

And from a labour person too. Doesn't he realise we already pay a fortune in tax to fund this outdated institution that refuses to bring itself into the 21st century?

It needs slimming down and the rubbish removed first. Brown tried more money it simply disappeared.
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The 'fraud' is a different problem, like the treatment of foreigners etc etc. Each is not helping but we need to get the main structure lean and mean to help combat the other problems.

If we dont do it then the NHS WILL collapse. And that would be too awful to contemplate.
The NHS has had around 5 major reorganisations that I can think of over the last 20 years, ymb. Profound changes, mostly driven from the creation of an internal market within the NHS and the need to properly oversee treatments for comparison and efficiency measures.

The number of people in the NHS classed as management or senior management constitutes approximately 4% of the NHS's 1 million workforce.

And the figure of £5 billion in fraud was derived, not from case histories within the NHS but from a study of 17 or so international health systems with estimates of fraud ranging from 0.5% to 15%, arriving at an average and then applying that figure to the NHS. Not a particularly scientific way of doing things, nor one that makes good business sense either, come to that.
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Hmmm, did you read my post ?
I did. What have I missed?
// Take it you agree with bloated management and wasted money away from front line services then Gromit? //

Of course I do not agree with bloated management. But I do not agree the NHS is over employed. You lot constantly state too many layers of management but never give any proof of it. The NHS is not run as well as it could be, but that is not due to too many managers.

1. An aging population means that NHS resouses are over stetched.
2. Despite funding supposedly being ringfenced, they have not kept up with inflation, so in effect that is a cut.
3. Governments of either persausion constantly undermine the NHS.
4. Creeping privatisation puts profits ahead of patient care.

NHS from it,s inception in 1948 was and still is a good idea......free health care for all.

All the arguments on AB today would have been expounded in the 60's 80's and indeed today.....all the same and will still be on the agenda in 50years time.

NHS has developed onto a GP led and dominated healthcare system despite advances in healthcare world wide. Being state controlled! the medical staff on particular with it!so strong and powerful unions can hold the country to ransom and have threatened to do so ok many occasions. The life of the GP and Dr Finlay's Casebook has long gone and the function of the GP has changed, to a lesser role, that of a filtration system.

Governments,unions! NHS staff, will never let this change happen and I dispute that in the past the NHS has undergone major changes...changes YES, but major...NO.

NHS employees have excellent pension schemes, no recognisable competition or result related pay, so there is no urge to change the situation.

In 30 years time this thread will be replicated......but my username will be absent............
what makes anyone think the private sector is perfectly run? Private sector businesses fail - banks, for instance, or G4S trying to run the Olympics security. And when they do, if their business is considered vital, the public sector has to take over anyway.
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No one is claiming the private sector is perfectly run, but the NHS would not have the problems that generally cause collapse would it. The NHS will not be expected to make a profit or pay dividends etc, the suggestion is they take a leaf out of the private sector on how to slim down and run effectively - and there are many many examples of how to do this well in the private sector.

As I said much earlier, we need the likes of Branson, Lehey or Rose to take the helm.
This a daft idea. £10 is hardly a life-changing amount of money Just proves that daft ideas don't all come from UKIP !
The NHS has taken quite a few "leaves" out of the private sector tree, with mixed results, at best. Still no one has articulated which policies/practices that are employed within the private sector that are not in evidence within the NHS. The narrative is reduced, always, to "public bad, private good", which is untrue and unhelpful.

The scheme proposed by Lord Warner is of a recurring membership fee of £10 per month, Mikey; Which by their calculations would raise over £2 billion a year, to be collected and administered locally. So it is not an inconsiderable sum, but I think it a non-starter, personally.
It is the cost of putting the NHS back into the mess that the Cons will leave it in when they vacate no 10 ,in 2015.The new government will have to sort it out.
Total stupidity but then what else could you expect from Labour nowadays. The NHS was built on free care for everyone, (initially for those who have paid their National Insurance stamp and taxes). All others should be obliged to pay, ie chase the foreigners who come here for private treatment and leave without paying. The cost of prescriptions has gone up again this year, although people on benefits and the elderly are exempt it is down to the hard working wage earners to foot the bill which IMO is unfair to have them pay more tax. Sqad is right the structure is still there but the Unions will not allow radical change that means shedding excess staff and management and bringing about an NHS service for the treatment and care of patients instead of the system that exists today.
//The number of people in the NHS classed as management or senior management constitutes approximately 4% of the NHS's 1 million workforce.//

… but it should be acknowledged that non-medical staff constitute over 50% of the total workforce. A ludicrous situation that no private enterprise managed in such a way would survive.

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/about/Pages/overview.aspx
I do not necessarily see that as being an especially significant issue at all, Naomi, unless you think all the ancillary staff required to run a health service need to have a clinical/scientific qualification. Is it necessary for all the cleaning staff, phlebotomists, janitors, porters, Health Care Assistants,Buyers, Stock Control Staff, Cooks, Kitchen Assistants, Secretaries,Administrators, Security Staff, and all the other myriad non clinical roles to have a medical or scientific qualification?

And what private company in their right mind would be seeking people with a medical or scientific qualification to run such ancillary services?

Hardly a "ludicrous situation".
I didn't suggest that any private company would employ medically trained staff to run non-medical services, but I think this is where one of the most significant changes has occurred within the NHS.

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