ANYONE who watched John Pilger's excellent documentary this week on the direction of the NHS and the appalling predicament faced by US patients who cannot afford healthcare would feel horror at the prospect of adopting a similar model here.
The film, 'The Dirty War on the NHS', could not be broadcast on television earlier due to rules restricting what can go out during an election campaign.
As Pilger himself noted on Twitter, this was ironic given that its theme - the sell-off of the NHS - had been "at the forefront of British politics".
It might not have averted the Tory landslide (the result was a verdict on Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn, with the health service as an afterthought), but it summarised why such an outcome is probably bad news.
READ MORE: Key questions 'remain unanswered' over Edinburgh's delayed Sick Kids' hospital
Much of the documentary focused on the situation in England where privatisation has crept in to a much more pernicious degree. The disastrous case of Hinchingbrooke hospital, the first NHS facility run by a private company, was a case in point.
Within five years the firm had pulled out blaming financial pressures, but this happened to coincide with a damning inspection report rating the service as 'inadequate'.
A senior nurse was in tears recalling how staff had been pitted against one another in a daily contest to free up beds by finding patients to discharge - potentially before they were really ready.
READ MORE: What could a Trump trade deal really mean for Scotland's NHS?
Scotland has escaped some of the worst reforms partly because we did not implement 2012's Health and Social Care Act, which encouraged the treatment of private patients within NHS hospitals as a source of income.
By 2015/16, some 1,142 beds were being set aside in NHS hospitals in England for patients paying for their operations - an initiative generating £600 million a year for NHS coffers.
Although this also takes place in Scotland, it is on a much smaller scale (a Herald investigation last year found that £13.2m had been gathered from 8,500 private patients treated in NHS Scotland facilities since 2012).
In Scotland, no beds were specifically ring-fenced for private patients (clients?).
READ MORE: Call for investigation into 8500 private patients treated on NHS Scotland
But, like NHS England, we have embraced private finance to build new hospitals only to see health budgets strangled by crippling PFI debt repayments. Funds that might have been invested in patient care, extra staff or keeping facilities open are sucked away, often ending up in tax havens.
Like England, we also rely too heavily on costly private hospitals to help clear waiting lists.
Scotland's health system is devolved, of course, but so much bad practice seeps across the border than in the end perhaps the best argument for independence will be the impetus to save the NHS.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel