Wed 4 Jul 2007
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.
I’m not looking to dispute you, but:
I have a friend who is Romanian. He claims that his country’s NHS has no such problems, and, even though he’s been in the USA for some years, he says he has got friends in Romania and France and that they don’t have any waiting times, etc.
Considering the stories I’ve heard of waiting lines (particularly in Canada and the UK), I’m assuming his impression is wrong, but I’d like to be able to actually cite some reliable figures from multiple sources — esp. if they are the respective governments themselves — so he has to seriously question his belief.
Multiple sources, so that he can’t claim that one site has an axe to grind (nothing personal, but it’s clear one could presume you are a “lone” individual or small group with an axe to grind with the NHS.) Not that I believe that, but it would be good if one had information from more than one source about the various healthcare systems.
If you happen to have any nice stories about the Romainian HCS in particular, that would be icing on the cake.
I can assemble it, but a listing of links to actual data would be good. I don’t have a source for it at the moment, for example, but, as I understand it, throughout the 80s and early 90s, Canada, with a population of 30 million, had four CAT scan devices for all of Canada. By contrast, the US State of Tennessee, with only 5 million residents, also had four. I’ve read that the average wait time in Canada for basic procedures is 17 weeks, and that is just to start the process, not to actually get it. A long list reeling off these sorts of facts, with reliable links to their sources, is called for, and very, very useful when refuting Moore’s idiotic tripe.