Quote:
Originally Posted by garinda
In the last fifteen years the NHS has never had so much funding thrown at it.
Much of it siphoned off into administration.
If the level of patient care rose over this time period, is a question open to debate.
Personally I think it didn't.
However, what is happening now, is that the pen-pushers are avoiding the effects of the cuts, whilst the frontline medical staff bear the brunt, resulting in poorer patient care, and cancelled operations.
That is wrong.
Reform was needed, but sadly this is totally the wrong sort of change which was needed.
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I usually dismiss "you can't solve a problem by throwing money at it" as empty rhetoric, a true tory cliche dragged out into debate in order to justify not spending on social programmes. However, if what you say is true, and I've no reason to doubt that it is, the cash pumped into the NHS was not used to its best effect. We have had reforms in Ontario. Hospitals were given budget targets and encouraged to meet those targets without hurting service, and, at the same time cutting wait times. Faced with this, hospital administrators quickly started doing the job they had been overpaid for. Efficiency increased without layoffs. And the delivery of first rate health care became better. However, there was never any consideration of making the patient pay for the faults of hospital administrations.
In this whole mess I detect in the tory attitude a strong stench of the worst kind of Calvinism.