We should privatise the NHS

If they privatised the NHS, I would be the first in line for the IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

I would be too, but read what I wrote. That isn't the type of privatisation I'm advocating.

So what are you suggesting? That individuals pay for their own care? I can not see how private companies can run things cheaper than the state when on top of their costs is profit to pay investors. It didn't work on the railways, water or energy markets. The only place it has worked is in telecoms but only because of consumer choice.

I agree privatisation isn't a dirty word but I don't see how private business is either cheaper or more efficient.

I would keep the current system but make foreigners pay for treatment after all it is called National Health Service

The Pharma sector is privatised enough to the point of good competition, so like you said there is little waste. It also means there is no real monopoly in the market for drugs out of patent. I like where the pharma sector is right now.

You are right, I would like to see the NHS in a place where there is more competition for jobs to improve efficiency. So government run, but they outsource most contracts to private companies.

Precisely, government funded, privately provided.

Hold on, before you respond with furious consternation and disbelief, hear me out. Opponents of healthcare reform in this country always point to the United States as the only other alternative to healthcare provision which is highly dishonest. When I say "privatise", I don't mean sell off the NHS on the stock market to private investors and force people to buy absurdly expensive health insurance. What I mean is that we should make greater use of the private sector within the NHS itself. Let's be honest, the current model of healthcare in the UK isn't sustainable for all sorts of reasons from an ageing demographic to greater prevalence of health issues related to lifestyle choices (we Brits exercise less than we ever have and shove more processed junk food down our throats than ever before). Despite consistent increases in the NHS budget since 2010, we always see reports of A&E departments overrun and our waiting times in comparison to the waiting times of other healthcare systems put us to shame.

Contrary to popular opinion, there is a third way when it comes to healthcare provision. In fact, few other developed countries in the world have copied the UK's NHS model whereby the government has a near total monopoly over healthcare provision. Critics of this government treat privatisation as a dirty word as if it can't bring anything positive to the table but those criticisms are flawed for two reasons. Firstly, the NHS is hardly being privatised. Under 10% of the NHS budget is dedicated to private providers, meaning more than 90% of the NHS is run by the government. Secondly, the notion that private involvement in healthcare is an evil sin is rejected by the systems which countries like Germany, Switzerland or France have in place. In those countries, the government collects taxes to pay for healthcare, but a mixture of private companies, charities and NGOs and the government provide the healthcare. The resulting competition leads to an efficiency and quality of patient care which we couldn't imagine in the UK.

The OECD, World Health Organisation and Euro health consumer index always rank the UK in the bottom third when it comes to healthcare. Our waiting times are longer, our cancer survival rates are worse, we have less hospital beds and doctors per patient. On every significant metric relating to patient outcomes, the NHS is outperformed by these single-payer or social health insurance systems. Simply throwing more money at an already very expensive part of government won't necessarily translate into healthcare improvements. For example, within the G7 Italy spent the least per person on healthcare but had the second highest life expectancy. The NHS has very deep structural problems. It is an outdated system designed 70 years ago in an era where healthcare was the luxury of the rich and where private health infrastructure didn't exist to serve the masses. The world has since changed.

"Privatisation" doesn't have to mean going down the American route, we can learn a lot from our European neighbours who provide healthcare free at the point of use and do it better than us because they incorporate more private firms.

I'd agree that non British citizens should pay for non-emergency NHS care but that would barely make a dent in the overall NHS budget. Foreigners using the NHS isn't really the problem.

No, I'm suggesting we outsource more NHS operations to the private sector. This model works in other countries so I don't see why it can't work in the UK.

The "competition" argument is complete nonsense when applied to health care. It's not like shopping where you can choose which supermarkets you buy your groceries from. With health care people are pretty much stuck with whatever they are given locally. You can't really shop around. Captive market I think the phrase is.

I'm not convinced. Having worked in companies that outsource functions, it is a nightmare because even though everyone is in the same office you get petite jobs-man-ship battles arising and an us and them culture. The concern in the NHS is that you outsource all the easy bits like cataract operations and hip replacements and all the knotty hard stuff is left to the NHS which is now much weaker because all the routine stuff has been removed.

The only reason to privatise in my opinion is if it would be cheaper and I can see no evidence of that being the case. If you want a European type service, we need to pay European levels of money for our NHS, which we don't.