Are we in danger of losing the NHS by default?

 

Millions of UK patients are now plundering their savings and are going private because of delays and difficulties in accessing NHS healthcare. Some are even paying for healthcare by crowdfunding. Isn't it curious, how easy it is to jump the queue, and get much-needed healthcare, when you're prepared to grease a few already greasy palms.

Many British people have forgotten how implacably opposed the medical profession was to the formation of the NHS at the end of WWII. Many doctors believed it would be financially ruinous to their private practices. Between 1946 and 1948, when the NHS was introduced, the doctors trade union the British Medical Association (BMA), mounted a vigorous campaign against the proposed legislation. Churchill's Tories voted against the NHS twenty-one times before the act was passed. When Labour's health minister, Nye Bevan, was asked how he'd managed to persuade the doctors to jump on board and to support the NHS, he replied: "by stuffing the doctors' mouths with gold." By this remark, he meant that British doctors and consultants, would be allowed to continue seeing private paying patients, if they accepted NHS patients.

There's a danger that we could finish up with an American style health system in Britain simply by default, because of the way the NHS has been neglected, leaving people with no other option, but to become private paying patients. Failure to pay a medical bill, is one of the biggest causes of middle-class bankruptcy in America and many Americans can't even afford decent health care. In Britain, many NHS patients are already having difficulty in getting a face-to-face appointment with their GP's.

The former Tory Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, wanted an American insurance-style health care system, but felt that such a policy, would alienate the British voter and backed off. Liz Truss, the new UK Conservative Prime Minister, is on record for being in favour of patients paying to see their GP's.

Some GP practices have already been taken over by U.S. healthcare company's, like the Centene Corporation. Yet, we shouldn't forget the immortal words of the Irish author and playwright, George Bernard Shaw, who told us: "All professions are conspiracies against the laity." Protecting vested interests has always been a major factor when it comes to providing healthcare.