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#BattleFest2015: Is the NHS still worth defending?
Podcast: listen to this debate from our Battle of Ideas archive.
Recorded at the Battle of Ideas 2015
We all love the NHS, don’t we? Despite the ubiquity of platitudes
about defending ‘our’ NHS, though, exactly what we are defending and
why?
The NHS has undergone significant changes since its inception in
1948. Shifts within patient demographics, combined with increased
patient demands and advances in technology and medical care, have
resulted in a system at breaking point. One million patients are seen
every 24 hours, at a cost of £2 billion each week. The kind of care
available and sums of money involved would surely astonish the
institution’s founders. Indeed, although often perceived as one
homogeneous care provider, high-profile scandals, such as those at Mid
Staffordshire and at the Morecambe Bay Maternity Unit, have illustrated
the variability in care across different hospitals – even within the
same trust. And on many important measures – for example, cancer
survival rates – the NHS seems to perform badly compared to health
services in comparable countries.
Nevertheless, the NHS is one of the few manifestations of the British
state that elicits strong and often positive feelings from significant
numbers of people. Politicians and parties often define themselves in
relation to the NHS and compete to be seen to be supporting it – even
when this can be difficult to reconcile with their policies and track
record. No major party seems willing to have a more fundamental
discussion about whether a taxpayer-funded health service, governed by
national and local government, is the best way to take care of the
nation’s health.
Yet, at the same time, the reality is that more and more publicly
funded healthcare is provided by profit-making or third-sector
organisations. The introduction of the Health and Social Care Act 2012,
particularly in relation to the commissioning of services from ‘any
willing provider’, has opened the doors to private and volunteer input,
often with variable results. Following the Conservatives’ victory in the
2015 general election, many supporters of the NHS fear that these
reforms will be pursued further.
Yet is the NHS everyone queues up to defend more national myth than
effective health care? Can it survive in its current form, and more
importantly, should it?
View all episodes
By academyofideas
3.9
77 ratings
Podcast: listen to this debate from our Battle of Ideas archive.
Recorded at the Battle of Ideas 2015
We all love the NHS, don’t we? Despite the ubiquity of platitudes
about defending ‘our’ NHS, though, exactly what we are defending and
why?
The NHS has undergone significant changes since its inception in
1948. Shifts within patient demographics, combined with increased
patient demands and advances in technology and medical care, have
resulted in a system at breaking point. One million patients are seen
every 24 hours, at a cost of £2 billion each week. The kind of care
available and sums of money involved would surely astonish the
institution’s founders. Indeed, although often perceived as one
homogeneous care provider, high-profile scandals, such as those at Mid
Staffordshire and at the Morecambe Bay Maternity Unit, have illustrated
the variability in care across different hospitals – even within the
same trust. And on many important measures – for example, cancer
survival rates – the NHS seems to perform badly compared to health
services in comparable countries.
Nevertheless, the NHS is one of the few manifestations of the British
state that elicits strong and often positive feelings from significant
numbers of people. Politicians and parties often define themselves in
relation to the NHS and compete to be seen to be supporting it – even
when this can be difficult to reconcile with their policies and track
record. No major party seems willing to have a more fundamental
discussion about whether a taxpayer-funded health service, governed by
national and local government, is the best way to take care of the
nation’s health.
Yet, at the same time, the reality is that more and more publicly
funded healthcare is provided by profit-making or third-sector
organisations. The introduction of the Health and Social Care Act 2012,
particularly in relation to the commissioning of services from ‘any
willing provider’, has opened the doors to private and volunteer input,
often with variable results. Following the Conservatives’ victory in the
2015 general election, many supporters of the NHS fear that these
reforms will be pursued further.
Yet is the NHS everyone queues up to defend more national myth than
effective health care? Can it survive in its current form, and more
importantly, should it?
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