Matt James, the Chief Executive of the private hospitals campaign group ‘H5’ recently got it right when commenting on the government’s Health Bill he accused trade unions of having falsely “whipped up accusations of privatisation”
NFR has long argued that the government’s Health Bill does not go far enough. So long as trust hospitals remain in the public sector and are not privatized there cannot by definition be sufficient independence or genuine market driven competition. That is why NFR believes in universal independent provision and wants full-blown hospital privatisation.
If only the trade unions were right. If only H5 would openly campaign for more privatisation!
I was at a party yesterday and got in to conversation with someone about the NHS and healthcare provision and funding in the UK. What was most interesting was that, although they admitted that the NHS was a system that failed people, they still thought that the Government would be able to put things right. The idea that given government has made such a mess of things should mean that it should stay out of healthcare in the future was not something that had been considered.
