I'm getting irritated with this debate.
Anyone who thinks doctors & nurses are qualified to meaningfully pontificate on the future of the nhs is deluded. Why? They often can't get their diagnoses right, they botch treatment, drug companies have far too much influence on their decision making and patients end up dying of or as a by-product of
malnutrition.
Nurses can't even turn patients to
stop bed sores.
We have junior doctors in A&E who can't diagnose angina (see last nights TV) and who can't diagnose a fractured wrist (and deny it's there) even when it is pointed out to them on xray (by me).
Nurses who can't warm up my hypothermic father because they don't know that they have to turn on the heater in the
warm air blanket till I point out that they are blowing cold air on a 75yo hypothermic patient!
How about the brand new Pembury hospial that didn't have any of the common prescription heart drugs that that my mother needed when she was admitted last weekend?
Cr*p as they often can be (not always) they are our best hope when we or our loved ones are critically ill. With that in mind we really do need to try to get the nhs working properly, 'cos it isn't at the moment......these reforms
might be a chance to make things better and we shouldn't dismiss them out of hand just because a tory government came up with them or medical professionals disagree with them.
</rant>