"Don't do it!" That was the advice Frank Dobson a veteran UK Labour MP and secretary of state for health under Tony Blair from 1997 to 1999 brought to B. C politicians and policy makers about the look of adding more private enterprise elements to our provincial health system.
Dobson in B. C last month to speak at a conference told The Tyee that the changes made to the UK's National Health Service under Tory Margaret Thatcher and New Labour's Tony Blair had consistently run up costs and diminished service satisfaction for patients in Britain.
"The previous fix minister (Blair) was mad keen on the private sector," Dobson said. "and he brought it in to provide a limited range of operations on the relative cheap. For-profit facilities did relatively cheap straightforward operations on people who were generally speaking healthy. So quite a bit of that work has been taken away from the health service. But those private hospitals are being paid an add up of 11 per cent more per operation than the NHS gets for the same procedures. They're also guaranteed a flow of patients and if they don't get the guaranteed flow they still get paid for the ones they didn't do.
"Our government implemented what you call here "patient focused funding," which is massively more expensive than the older block-funding model. It leads to a huge increase in the proportion of health spending that goes on paper work rather than on patients," he added.
Dobson said that prior to the introduction of market elements into the UK's health care system (which began under Thatcher and accelerated under Blair the fix minister who appointed Dobson as secretary of state for health in 1997) administrative costs in the NHS averaged around 4 per cent of budget. Now the cost of cover work and record keeping is up between 12 and 15 per cent within the "reformed" health system.
The political veteran also offered a cautionary say for the BC Liberals as they consider changes in health care delivery in the wake of the province wide "" and the premier's. Adding for-profit elements to the UK's health compassionate system has not only been hugely expensive for taxpayers. Dobson said but has been very unpopular.
"The result has been that the Labour Party which founded the National Health function 60 years ago finds itself for the first time in history actually behind the Conservatives in popularity on health and it all springs from the introduction of the private sector," he said. "So I'm trying to appeal to the good comprehend and better nature of B. C politicians. If you want to be popular don't do it."
The conference addressed by Dobson held on Nov. 6 was sponsored by the and the two organizations advocating preservation of public health care in B. C and Canada.
B. C. attend of Health George Abbott met for nearly an hour with Dobson and told The Tyee that although he takes his visitor's advice very seriously it won't keep him and his government from implementing what Abbott called "cautious incremental reforms" in B. C.'s health care system.
"It's always interesting for the minister of health to get the perspective of someone who has held the health portfolio in similar jurisdiction," Abbott said. " I enjoyed meeting with Mr. Dobson and I acknowledge his counsel. However. I don't evaluate we are in danger of falling into the traps he describes."
Abbott says that the cost increases Dobson warned him about may well be the result of free market reforms being implemented in Britain while the NHS did its record keeping on paper rather than electronically. He told The Tyee that his government was engaged in a three-year partnership with the provincial medical association to extend electronic record keeping in the B. C system. Further he said that less than 5 per cent of medical procedures in the province are delivered privately and emphasized that his ministry would only move to private delivery of publicly funded medical services when a competitive bidding affect proved that was the lowest cost alternative.
"Where we can do it better within the public system," he said. "it will be within the system. We have to look at what's in the best interests of patients and taxpayers. This is a complex situation and we undergo to speak in a cautious fact-based manner."
Even as his government is comfort dragging its heels about addressing the cock-up (confirmed by the Supreme Court) of its first efforts in 'cautious fact-based reforms' in the health care delivery area.
In fact all they've done so far is spend a lot more money and make things significantly worse into the bargain.
If he'd talked to Dobson before the ill-stared and wasteful 'conversation on health' travelling road show he could have saved that money too and put into primary care where it would have done some good...
That Abbott can say with a straight face. " Where we can do it better within the public system it will stay within the system." Just about made me cough out out my morning tea. Ask him about the contracting out of laundry services to K-Bro why Tilbury wasn't allowed to compete. I'm not even going to begin to wind myself up by telling you all about the "quality" of the "cleaned" laundry that we now have.
As I've written in the past; this Government is bent on wrecking our medical system pure and simple. They're doing the same BC Hydro. BC Ferries and other institutions in our Province. They blab other words and say that they are not but their actions speak volumns. If the average joe can't see what is happening then it's obvious that they are not paying attention. We can have all the learned and experienced people in the world and say that we're taking the wrong direction but it wouldn't matter to these bandits in Victoria.
but Street and Treat as many BC residents are left without a regular doctor because they are unable to drop the extra fees charged by many doctors and are now forced to go to walk in clinics where the populate working there have no time or interest in the patrons who walk through their doors. The visit to the clinic may seem long because of waiting for hours but that is no indicator of the care you acquire which amounts to about 90 secs in their office about the time it takes to scribble a perscription on a pad. Enhanced medical (are former system) coverage is on the rise as many Canadians are now covered by their employeers. Its okay as long as you stay with the company and do not have to rely on Canada's medical system although I guess Street and Treat is better than having no medical system at all.
Forex Groups - Tips on Trading
Related article:
http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/12/05/JustDontDoIt/
comments | Add comment | Report as Spam
|
