..and other fairy tales. From the Conservative party manifesto

There is no evidence that putting in private companies to the NHS does anything useful. The new reforms will make it all worse – why can we not realise that ‘competition’ does not work everywhere? Why can we not realise that the profit motive is not the best way to run a healthcare system? Would you please, Mr Cameron, look at America?

The ‘no decision about me, without me’ is the kind of  refrain which politicians love. It’s a bit like being ‘anti-cancer’ – of course you can’t be pro-making-decisions-without-patients. But look at the detail: it’s the inherent opposite. Instead of a patient and a GP sitting down together to discuss what needs done and where, a shifting market of budgets, fundholding, and ‘pathways’  means that people who don’t have the ability, the will or the advocacy to fight for their corner will lose out.

What an absolute disaster. Up will rise various competitors to the NHS, all wanting a bite at the cherry. And all will come with strict limits on what they will or won’t do, what complications they will or won’t cover. The joined up system where one specialist can ask another for advice will be replaced (if it hasn’t already) with a system where no consultant-to-consultant referrals are allowed, and delays and inconvenience are enjoyed as a potential cost-saving is stacked up. Bad news for patients. Bad news for doctors trying to do a good job. When did they ever get to make this ‘choice’?

Didn’t the conservatives say that they were against (yet another) NHS reorganisation, pre-election? Why do they think they can make a health market system work when it never has, and when Obama is trying his best to reverse the tide?