All fair points - but the fundamental point about people getting access to free healthcare has remained so far.
Comment on Why do European Leftist call their government's right wing despite having free healthcare?
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 6 days agoThe NHS has already largely been privatised. GPs were always private contractors but now GP groups have been increasingly bought by US companies, with the largest GP group in England, The Practice (half a million patients), being completely US owned
NHS Logistics was privatised 2006-2019 (part of DHL, later Unipart) before becoming a government owned company.
NHS internal operation capacity has essentially frozen since 2014, with the increase coming from the private sector. Over a third of “NHS” hip and knee operations, 60% of cataract operations, and a fifth of operations overall are contracted out to private companies.
In terms of “internal” structure the service has been broken up into more than 500 legally distinct “Public Benefit Corporations” who can set up commercial subsidiaries and bid for provision contracts between themselves, as well as entering into commercial partnership with foreign companies such as the Mayo Clinic’s involvement in Oxford’s NHS provider.
Social care has been almost totally privatised at this point.
sanguinepar@lemmy.world 6 days ago
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 6 days ago
You’re unfortunately very mistaken there. That fundamental was shattered in 1993 when social care was separated from the NHS (free at point of use) and instead given to local government (means tested pricing at point of use). Ever in search of savings for their limited budgets, local governments promptly privatised and outsourced their services. We went from 65% of care home spaces being publicly funded at the end of the 1970s to 6% a decade ago. At-home care went from being 95% publicly funded in 1993 to 11% in 2012.
This sector of healthcare is beyond breaking point, with over 100,000 unfilled staff vacancies in care homes alone. This creates a backlog as NHS hospitals can’t discharge patients who need residential care that doesn’t exist.
If you’re expecting a free-at-point-of-use care home later in life, think again. That is gone. Unless you have a large accumulation of savings to burn through things don’t look rosy.
sanguinepar@lemmy.world 6 days ago
I don’t disagree, but I wasn’t really talking about care homes, I was talking about treatment, operations, maternity care, etc.
starlinguk@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Free at the point of care.
starlinguk@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Out of hours doctors are all private doctors (they have been for years) and hospitals now have a department you get sent to when you shouldn’t be sent to A&E but its still kinda urgent, and those are private too. Also, last time I needed a surgical procedure they sent me to a private hospital. So yeah, you’re absolutely right.