Health Service Reform

It seems as though Patricia Hewitt has got some good ideas, but unfortunately doesn’t know how to implement them properly. Use of the private sector in medical treatment would be very beneficial to this country, it would allow the private hospitals to expand and improve the service to patients. It is also correct that the government should under the current system pay the cost, why? Well, because they are running national medical insurance, this leaves many people in work unable to take out private medical insurance, as they would be paying twice. The only real problem with the scheme would be that the private hospitals would be contracted out on the choice of the NHS rather than the patient.

It would be far better if we could make the NHS (insurance) voluntary and increase the use of private insurance, the current NHS hospitals could remain government run for the moment, however, it would be the choice of the patient which hospital they wanted to go to. The NHS hospitals would still receive money for the treatment, and if they were efficient and provided a good service then they would continue to retain custom, however, if they remained as inefficient as they are today, then private institutions would be able to grow. With this idea I am simply attempting to introduce competition into the market place, by introducing competition, there is a real reward for producing the best service, a reward which does not exist under the present system, and will not exist under Patricia Hewitt’s system.