Assimilation by stealth

[jon]

Nobody is seeing the gradual takeover of NHS medical practice partnerships by large american organisations. Approved apparently by the last labour government.

[JNugent]

You are right.

And that's because it isn't happening.

Yeah, right.

[Brian Gaff]

Actually, what happens to many organisations is that they look for investment, and in any given circumstance, it is often those who are larger, who put the money in. After all its been the Arabs, the French or whoever who have baled out commercial companies in other spheres. This is the weakness of trying to get nationally owned systems to get private finance to save Government money. In the end, those who own it will want a return on their investment, or everyone would not invest with them in the first place. Its the way Capitalism works. Brian

[jon]

Feedback from service users who are visually impaired or blind is that of appalling waiting times, poor information relating to a diagnosed condition, poor or no signposting to other agencies for support. There seems to be an acknowledgement that the NHS is being privatised and will be incorporated into the failing USA system.

[Andrew]

Which is complete BS. Apart from which if you took out all the USA- derived hitech medical equipment and therapeutic agents from the NHS then there wouldn't be an NHS. There would be no blood tranfusion service at all, and only rudimentary pathology services.

Remove the German, Swedish, Finnish, Israeli and Danish stuff and only buildings would be left.

The USA system isn't failing. It is fantastic, but only if you pay the insurance premiums, and they don't seem to have 'waiting lists' over there as a result. If you don't have insurance, well that is another matter.

I'm always amazed that British people happily pay out thousands of pounds on vet bills yet have an extreme entitlement to the same (or far more costly) treatment on the NHS for nothing.

I have no complaint with the local eye hospital, where I have made several visits in the last year including 2 at the weekend (saturday and sunday). The weekend staff are quite obviously not NHS staff, which seems like a good deal to keep waiting lists in check.

[Jeff Gaines]

Nonsense.

The NHS contracts out some tasks as do all private organisations, e.g. many walk in centres are contracted out and NHS uses external organisations for day surgery.

Suggesting that means the NHS is being privatised is just socialist dogma.

[The Natural Philosopher]

It sure needs breaking up into more manageable entities, but complete privatisation may not be the way to go

[Rod Speed]

Bullshit.