Private healthcare boom adds to fears of two-tier system in UK Shift could leave millions vulnerable because of ethnicity, postcode or job, warns thinktank

11 comments

  1. From a recent report:

    *”The NHS operates as one of the most efficient and cost-effective health services in the industrialised world, boasting substantially lower costs than other advanced European countries such as France, Germany, Sweden or Switzerland. The Germans (who have a far larger private sector influence) spend 30% more per person on health care than the UK. And since 2010 the NHS has been increasing its productivity faster than the rest of the UK economy.”*

    People are going to argue it’s about “efficiency” and “value for money”, but that’s the reverse of what happens via privatisation. There’s a massive, massive windfall of money to be made from the British public in the private healthcare market – and remember this is a market that looks to extract the highest possible profit from human sickness, possibly one of the least ethical profit-seeking endeavours you can find.

    It’s also of note that both Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson have big donors linked to private healthcare giants so keeping public awareness high is important.

  2. The Tories have gutted the NHS through chronic underfunding and selling of their buildings. This issue is of their making.

    Younger people don’t remember the decades of Tory attacks. Now the pandemic has left the NHS crippled and ripe for targeting by their private sector friends.

    This is the standard Tory MO.

    Don’t fall for it!

    The reason you can’t see your GP is that there hasn’t been enough funding across all services. Social care has been pushed back into the community. But there are no longer enough district nurses. There are nowhere near enough midwives for home births, so all pressure get out back on hospitals and gps to provide support. There have been countless reports over the years.

    Sadly those that can afford to move to private care will do so. Thereby providing sufficient evidence for the Tories to be able to say this is what people want. However the private sector only deals with minor non emergency procedures, and uses the same consultants as the public sector. Which in turn means that there will be more pressure on the NHS to deliver with fewer staff etc

    It’s just a downward spiral and will eventually just become a clusterfuck like the American system

    Fuck the tories

  3. It already is a two tier system in my experience, I have a health problem relatively serious, NHS literally fucked around for a year doing not much investigations or tests.

    As soon as I contacted my private insurance about it because I was pissed off, and my new doc started asking about and ordering tests… wouldn’t you know it, NHS sprung into action and I’m getting looked after from both ends now.

    Seen the exact same thing with my g/f too, she has a more serious condition than mine, very life threatening and while she was not… ignored by the NHS, when it came to actual treatments and surgery the only way is to pay private. Unless of course you live in Scotland where the operation is free.

    So it’s actually a 3 tier service.

    It goes :

    * Private
    * Scotland
    * English plebs.

  4. Private ain’t all bells and whistles. I have BUPA through my work. I can’t see a dermatologist until May. North East of England so there will be less specialist. I tried the NHS to have a GP tell me to talk to a pharmacist for potential shampoos of which I’ve tried various over the counter.

    The only thing I rate private for is instant GP access with easy referrals to specialists which the NHS drags out as long as possible.

  5. Will it actually be *because of* ethnicity, postcode, or job, or will it be *because of* other factors and we’ll just be able to measure differences in these data. It’s a very important distinction to make.

  6. Right wing dream coming to fruition. The plan all along was to break the NHS to force it into the hands of the private sector.

  7. A two-tier healthcare system is of course terrible but the main impact will be on the economy, as every other destruction of the welfare state has also been.

    I don’t see how the UK can survive.

  8. If people are willing to pay for private healthcare, then that’s an individual decision. After reading the article, I get the sense that it is seen as a negative thing. Sure the NHS could be better. That’s been the case since it’s inception. I’m not sure what the major issue here is in regards to private healthcare

  9. It’s been two-tier for a LONG time and it’s a total disgrace that is just getting worse.

    There are solutions, problem is most people don’t understand (or actually genuinely care) so we’re stuck with a downward spiral.

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