PHS
Why is David Cameron so keen are introducing private and for profit business into the National Health Service. He has just announced plans to sell off the state owned NHS Professionals which supplies agency staff and NHS Locum jobs to hospitals. Its always been big business providing temporary workers. In the old days there used to be pools of workers who would be able to cover sick days and vacation days for the regular workers. Then, agencies took over the task, providing nurses and others at exorbitant daily rates and making a handy profit.The smart thing of course was to return to the old method and supply this service in house, this is what NHS Professionals did. Its not brain surgery, so to speak. Why does David Cameron want to allow again private businesses back in to reap profits on a necessary service.It is ideological, a belief in the capitalist economy. If one looks at the United States one sees where mixing market logic with health care leads: millions of uninsured, rich insurance companies, and inflated prices for the services that every healthy nation needs.Profit does not mix with health care, the logic of greed and the logic of empathy are contradictory. When it comes to the health and welfare of a nation of people it is best to leave the greed of capitalism and market economics out of it. There are always tough decisions that have to happen within the NHS, where the needs of the many sometime and painfully out weigh the needs of a few. Expensive and experimental cancer treatments have caused much debate and heartache in families across the nation. It really hits home while waiting in A and E with a sick child: a broken finger while causing intense pain, is not life threatening, and waiting, one has to remind one self of the unlucky parents whose children are being seen first. It is a National Health Service and not a private health service and we need to fight together to insure that it stays that way. Perhaps Mr Cameron should consider some Lifestyle Change coaching to better prepare him for such decision making.
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