Exclusive: NHS hospital waiting times are the lowest since records began - mirror.co.uk:
"Hospital waiting times are the lowest since records began, Health Secretary Alan Johnson will say today as he rounds on critics of the NHS.
"Mr Johnson aims to hit back at the doom and gloom-mongers by showing how the nation's health service has been transformed for the better in the 12 years since 1997.
"He will highlight figures showing delays for treatment have fallen in many areas."
Some of the numbers are quite impressive. I don't think these numbers are significantly different than US (and by that, I mean these are not intolerable waits by most standards). And remember, they hae health care for their entire population, not just those who can afford it.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Exclusive: NHS hospital waiting times are the lowest since records began - mirror.co.uk
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2 comments:
I would like to point out a few things firstly that as a UK citizen I have better coverage than most insured US citizens should I fall ill or get injured when visiting the US as NHS cover includes treatment abroad.
NICE is a public body and its deliberations research and decisions on the effectiveness of treatments are in the public domain
Stephen Hawking is British and has lived in the UK all his life.
The two things which save most costs for the NHS are the low cost of funding the service and the high utillisation of resources.
Low cost of funding - tens of billions are saved because the administration of the service is so cheap. We do not have to sell an insurance policy so no commission. We do not have to administer an insurance policy so no admin i.e. at this level no one has to decide whether you are covered for treatment. We dont pay armies of lawyers to defend disallowed claims. Payment of health insurance depends on income and is taken at source with salaries along with income taxes so the payment into the system is very cheap to collect.
you would have to be stupid to ignore the costs inherrent in the US system it costs a fortune to run.
Resource utillisation is another big saver for the NHS. We do not duplicate functions or capital equipment locally. What this means is that if a patient needs NMR or some other expensive diagnostic tool then he/she will go to a clinic at a usually local hospital. Not all of the hospitals need therefore to invest in this equipment - this means that the unit cost of treatment falls rapidly because the equipment required is fully employed.
Companies and individuals are not allowed to profit excessively from the NHS's activities - this includes drug companies.
The voluntary sector is very comfortable in working with this national not for profit model and are encouraged to do so. Almost all care of terminally ill is handled in the UK by the Hospice movement and this is supported by charity but backed up by the NHS.
Waiting lists - US commentators seem to think that there are waiting lists for everything in the NHS and this is not true. Waiting lists are for elective treatment only there is no waiting list for any life threatening condition. There is no waiting list for any emergency care.
Finally British people feel that they own their health services and will put up with its shortcomings this isnt because they are a bunch of propagandized sheep - it is because they know that if they need it the NHS will be there and will do its best for them - all of them
Thanks for your input!
You might consider turning this comment into a "diary" over at DailyKos to get a few more eyeballs on it!
Are you a physician?
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