Nurses for Reform Blog

Shock, horror! Following decades of British nursing and medical leaders arguing that healthcare is so important it should be beyond monetary consideration we now learn that the Royal College of Nursing is busy sending out ballot papers to English nurses asking if they are ready to go on strike for – yes you have guessed it – MORE PAY!

While on the one hand nurses’ leaders spend much of their time foolishly encouraging the public to accept the bogus idea that healthcare should be devoid of economic consideration and as such it should be ‘free’, on the other, they simultaneously argue that their members should have more pay! Now, am I missing something or is this not a totally incoherent strategy doomed to failure?

If I was leading nurses I would say from the outset that healthcare is not free and nor are nurses. Healthcare is all about money and we are no longer prepared to be the cheap uniformed tarts of vote seeking politicians. I would then push for the complete privatisation and deregulation of all aspects of healthcare and medicine – including the professions.

NFR believes that only by promoting a genuine and diverse private healthcare market will nurses and patients ever get away from the monopoly abuse that is state healthcare.

NFR is open about the fact that healthcare is all about money and that in a genuine market good nurses would be better rewarded for their skill and contribution.

NFR accepts that the NHS is not free and nurses should never debase themselves by repeating such a preposterous and economically illiterate lie. So long as they do, nurses will go on begging and grovelling for a few extra crumbs. If they don’t question the fundamentals of the system they will go on filling in their pathetic, silly little, RCN ballots and getting bugger all in return.

Perhaps highlighting a new type of insider trading,  a new survey commissioned by BUPA shows that more than 55 per cent of NHS consultants now have private medical insurance. What do they know that most British people still refuse to accept?  Do these doctors go private because they recognise the filthy conditions in most state hospitals or do they go private because they know that having a target time of 18 weeks for an operation is absurdly lengthy and dangerous? NFR suspect most doctors go private because they want to receive high quality care and treatment in a timely, hygienic and respectful manner.

Following this excellent article by Stephen Pollard in yesterday’s edition of The Times it is with little surprise that I read this today.

As our population ages and peoples’ demand for healthcare services continue to outpace taxation, NFR not only accepts that more people will have to pay-as-they-go for an increasing array of medical services but we also believe that it is only morally right that those who can afford to should start by going private for their diagnostic tests.

It is now time for people to wake up, save their money and overtime disconnect from the NHS whenever possible.

On Thursday 14 June 2007 I spoke at a conference hosted by the Galen Institute and the International Policy Network at the National Press Club in Washington DC. My speech warned American opinion formers not to follow an NHS style single-payer healthcare system.

The Galen Institute subsequently provided an overview of the event.

Then on Tuesday 26^th June I had a major Opinion-Editorial published in America’s 6^th largest newspaper the Chicago Tribune. Condemning Michael Moore’s socialistic movie Sicko.

This piece was in turn followed by a number of supportive letters from readers.

On Wednesday 27^th June I had another article published, this time in the Boston Herald.

On Friday 29^th June I was quoted by Kurt Loder in his column for MTV 

Given the way these things work and the sheer speed of global communications these days my articles were also picked up by a range of key wire services and blogs. Here is a selection of some of the additional coverage received.

United Press International

Crazy Politico’s Rantings

Health Care BS 

Jackie Danicki

Gus van Horn 

Creative Destruction

All Things Conservative

Brian Micklethwait