Nurses for Reform Blog

It is interesting how during August when many people have their eye off the ball the realities of government policy are quietly revealed.  This story demonstrates that, despite its pre-election promises, David Cameron’s government are not committed to providing cancer drugs to those in desperate  need.

In fact as this article demonstrates the goal posts are being moved constantly, the budget for cancer drugs is being revised downwards and only a fraction of people with cancer will receive the life prolonging drugs that they need.

Nurses for Reform is delighted with the breaking news that the government has rightly decided to scrap the exorbitantly expensive, inefficient and frequently useless NHS Direct helpline.  NFR has long campaigned for the ruthless dismantleing of such pseudo-services instead preferring wholesale privatisation.

On the downside, NFR is hugely skeptical of the new 1-1-1 Helpline currently being piloted in the North-East of England.  Instead of such state funded monopolists NFR prefers a much more open and diverse approach to healthcare advice.

While I make no comment on the health issues surrounding smoking, I am very concerned about this article and the rise in public health vigilanteism.

That children should be encouraged, either actively or passively, by teachers and the police to assault smokers in public because they do not agree with their personal choices is something that we should be very worried about.

This type of action has led to dreadful horrors in the past and society should be very worried about the public persecution of individuals merely exercising their freedom to make life style choices.

In 1948 the British government put a leaflet through the door of every household. It said, in black and white, that: “the NHS will provide you with all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone – rich or poor – can use it.”

However, more than 60 years later this lady, who had worked for and believed in the NHS, was denied basic diagnostic care because it was the weekend!

As time goes on we are seeing more and more examples of how the NHS promise is not worth the paper that it is written on. This, and many other examples that I have previously written about, should warn the American people that more government intervention in healthcare is not a path that they should take,

I know that I have recommended this book before, but I make no apology for doing so again.  Working Class Patients and the Medical Establishment: Self-Help in Britain from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to 1948 written by Dr David Green of Civitas, is one of the most influential books that I have read on the provision of healthcare before the establishment of the NHS.

Given the changes that are coming our way with the NHS reforms proposed by Andrew Lansley, many opinion formers and indeed Union Officials could do with brushing up on some history!