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A letter to the Editor EKM:-
In a post Christian society I suppose it not odd that people are still looking for something to worship, and last weeks letters page contained two letters from disciples of our (sic) NHS encouraging others to join their congregation at 'Fair Deal for the NHS'.
They contained the usual dog-whistle untruths about 'privatisation and profit' and suggested that the solution, as ever, is to spend even more money on what is the fourth largest employer on the planet.
No-one is denying that there are pressures on the service (ageing population, more expensive drugs/technology and huge population increase due to immigration), but pressure is hardly new.
As far back as the 1960s Enoch Powell the Health Minister was actively encouraging immigration from the Indian sub-continent to fill skill shortages.
The question is whether money alone is a universal panacea or merely a sticking plaster temporarily covering a non healing wound.
The most authoritative survey recently undertaken to understand the true state of the NHS is the 2017 Commonwealth Fund Report surveying Health Care in 11 advanced economies from which the Guardian proudly claimed the 'UK health system comes out on top in new report'.
Unfortunately on healthcare outcomes such as infant mortality rates and life expectancy the UK came overall next to last beating only the USA and behind Switzerland, France, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Canada and Germany.
While we're apparently very good on such things as accessibility and equity (whatever that is) we're not very good at treating patients.
On the subject of % of GDP spent on healthcare, whilst it had been the lowest of all the countries going as far back as 1998 (under Labour), since 2012 it has been overtaking other countries and now, at 9.9% (2014) is higher than Australia, New Zealand and Norway and close to the average for the survey if one excludes the USA.
There is a serious debate to be had about what level of service we should expect from our health service and how it should be funded. Let us indeed get real and be honest. Even if we spent 100% of GDP on the NHS we could not afford to give everybody all the treatment they could possibly have and at the end of the day we all die anyway.
I'm not sure that the moans raised by your correspondents add much reality or indeed honesty to this important discussion.
Captain Haddock.