Britain's National Health Service is the envy of the world and yet it seems it is permanently under threat.
Rationalisation has closed wards and moved services from one hospital to another, there is a continual lack of funds and a struggle to break even.
The problems are complex with an organisation with a £95 billion budget.
Suggestions for the future have included part privatisation, changing a structure top heavy with managers, bringing back the matron in all her pomp, glory and efficiency, and investing properly in the nurses and doctors who are the bedrock of the service.
Rob Webster, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which speaks on behalf of all health service commissioners and providers, has warned that if funding fails to keep up with patient demand, hospitals might have to charge for overnight stays on a ward.
“If the NHS cannot afford to fund everything, then it will need to make tough choices about what it does fund,” he said.
A time could come when the public would have to choose between longer waiting times for treatment, or to pay for bed and board. It has been suggested fees could be means-tested and set at around £75 per night.
The NHS was launched in 1948 with the aim of providing health care to all regardless of wealth.
It is now the world’s largest publicly funded health service and is recognised as one of the most efficient, egalitarian and comprehensive.
With a general election next year, the NHS is likely to be one of the major points of debate. But how good is it? And should it be saved?
A 2014 report from the US based
Commonwealth Fund, a private non-partisan organisation that supports independent research on health and social issues, investigated healthcare in 11 wealthy countries.
The NHS in the UK was named best in the world.
Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, France and Canada followed. The healthcare service of the US was last at 11th.
While the US has the most expensive healthcare system in the world, those people who can’t afford it, don’t get it.
Those without medical insurance or who are not rich enough to buy good health, do without. They get ill and die.
Americans with below-average incomes are unlikely to visit a doctor if they become ill or, if they do, they are unable to pay for recommended test, treatment, care or prescription.
“One third or more lower-income adults in the US, said they went without needed care because of costs in the past year.”
We tend to take the NHS, for all its faults, for granted. It is our safety net.
We visit our GP or go to hospital without fear of being priced out of life. I did a quick calculation of the medical attention I’ve received in the last 18 months - treatment I’ve taken for granted - and priced it against average American fees.
I’ve had four eye examinations ($234 each), two cataract operations ($3,230 each), a chest X ray ($370), a flu jab ($25), and visited the doctor five times - average cost for visiting a GP in the States is $104 for 15 minutes.
I also had a heart monitor fitted at HRI for 24 hours but can’t find what the cost of that might be in America.
I work this out at about $8,500, plus the heart monitor. A total of about £5,300.
Add to this the level of professionalism, care, courtesy, good humour and friendliness of all the staff involved and I am not surprised that the National Health Service remains the best in the world and the envy of other nations.
It’s commonsense that it must be protected, unless we want to go the way of America.
It’s an issue worth bearing in mind come the General Election.
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