Nurses for Reform Blog

I have recently had to renew my daughter’s BUPA health insurance, while doing this I came across some very interesting information.

While discussing payment and cover options I was astounded to find out that if I wanted my daughter to have the option of using the private pay bed units in NHS hospitals I would have to pay considerably more than if she was to use only private hospitals.  This is because the NHS apparently makes no attempt to be competitive to attract business, they blindly charge far higher prices than the private sector and ultimately drive away business.

David Cameron and Andrew Lansley are right, the NHS should be opened up to competition and the sooner this happens the better.  I have no problem with the NHS using pay beds to generate income, what I do have a problem with is being ripped off!

The recent announcements that the government is creating more Academies and Free Schools is really good news for education in the UK.  However, it really is a shame that the same reforms are not being applied to the UK’s hospitals.

While NFR would agree that the development of GP Consortia are a good idea and should be pursued, the government’s healthcare reforms must be as bold and exciting as those in education.

NFR would like to see all NHS hospitals being returned to the independent sector, being run by a multitude of for and not-for-profit suppliers.  While the healthcare unions are busy protecting their own vested interests it is becoming increasingly apparent that patients and consumers of healthcare just want good quality and value for money.  It is time that the government and the unions realised this and started setting hospitals free to deliver this.

This really is great news.  Dr Peter Carter, of the Royal College of Nursing, is finally beginning to listen to Nurses for Reform and to really understand the NHS reforms.

His understanding that failing hospitals should close is a major step forward.  Sadly, he still seems to think that healthcare provision should still be managed top down by central government rather than develop via market mechanisms, but this  is definitely a start!

On Tuesday afternoon I was interviewed on the BBC’s Three Counties drivetime show to discuss the progress of the Coalition Government’s healthcare reforms.

The points that I made were:

1. The core of these healthcare reforms have always and will always build upon the key reforms of Tony Blair in the early 1990’s.  Through the concordat with the private hospitals, the introduction of Independent Treatment Centres (ITCs) and the desire to have Independent Foundation Trusts and Public Private Partnerships it was Tony Blair and the last Labour Government that brought to an end the counter productive war between the NHS and the independent healthcare sector.

2. No-one in the coalition government has ever proposed an American-style healthcare system.  Clearly, what David Cameron and Nick Clegg want is to deliver a more open, innovative and diverse NHS that fully uses all expertise and resources available whether NHS, mutual, charitable or for profit.

3. NFR is critical of the tories as for too long they did not explain what they were attempting to achieve for the NHS and this led to Unison and the BMA scare mongering.  I think that we should be greatful to Nick Clegg for having forced Andrew Lansley to better communicate the reforming messages in a non-threatening way.

4. While NFR would like to see a more radical and market oriented approach that is even more patient focused, we are confident that NHS provision will become ever more independent.

5. NFR also sees these reforms as an opportunity to increase efficiency and competition in the independent sector and are delighted that the government plans to remove the cap on NHS pay beds.

6. In time NFR would like to see the following changes made to the NHS:

• Hospitals and healthcare professionals being allowed to advertise their services to enable the establishment of trusted brands.
• All NHS hospitals to be returned to the Independent sector. No NHS funded patient should have to be treated in a state owned or run hospital
• Planning laws must be changed to make it easier to build new hospitals and clinics.
• The government must abolish collective pay bargaining.  Pay must be negotiated at local levels.

7. Finally, NFR believes that Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms have never been revolutionary, they have been evolutionary building on the work of Tony Blair.  As the unions were wrong to scare monger that his reforms were privatisation in the 1990s, they are wrong to cry wolf now.  NFR wants an honest and open debate, we want to see the end of vested interest groups such as Unison and the BMA misleading the public.  Because these reforms are patient focussed they must be supported.

This is a very insightful article from Janet Daley in the Telegraph.

She pretty much sums up my view that David Cameron spent a considerable amount of time this week announcing that there will be little or no changes to the NHS reforms proposed by the coalition government.

When you examine the detail of his speech you find that there is really not much there.  He stated that the NHS will not be changed in to an American-style system.  That’s fine, but I don’t think that they intended to do that anyway.

He also stated that the NHS will continue to be free at the point of delivery.  Again, no change.  Another key point seemed to be the insistence that the NHS remain a universal service.  As far as I can tell this just means that the government will remain the main funder of NHS care for the forseeable future.  However, over time I think we will see more and more people choosing to make top-up payments for various treatment and care options.

The government is aware that if the healthcare provision in the UK does not change very soon there will be even more of a disaster than we have at the moment.  While in my view the proposed reforms do not go far enough, if they do not go through there will be even more stories such as this as the NHS fails to cope.

On Sunday morning I was interviewed on LBCs Andrew Pierce show to discuss this story on charges for parking at NHS hospitals in England.

I made the following points;

1. Some NHS hospitals use these parking charges to deter non-hospital visitors (such as people visiting nearby shopping centres with high parking costs) from using their car parks as cheap or free parking.  Thus ensuring that spaces are available for patients and genuine hospital visitors.

2. In my experience, most hospitals that levy charges for parking have schemes available that reimburse people on low incomes and patients making multiple visits for long term conditions or treatments.

3. The money raised from parking is not a profit and would most probably be used to fund patient care.

4. Most importantly, the imposition of parking charges should not be a one size fits all dictat from central government.  The decision should be made by individual hospitals taking in to account local circumstances.