19 : NHS Crisis ?
Winter is here.
And so the annual plethora of otiose ideological partisan cant and vacuous platitudes aka the " NHS is in Crisis " discourse is once again under way.
The answer to " will the NHS ever be out of a state of crisis?" appears after many decades to be; no.
The only differences to be discerned amongst all the world's national health systems is the degree to which they are all in one way or another perceived to be " performing " or functioning at a noticeably lower standard than any other arbitrarily chosen health system or systems to which they are compared at any point in time.
For example ,the reputable body on such matters , The King's Fund posted online on June 8 2017, ( herewith an extract gleaned ) from " How Does the NHS Compare Internationally ".
" Although the UK has been at the forefront of the development of measures of health care quality (like the national patient survey programme) and the use of quality improvement techniques (like evidence-based clinical guidelines), performance on some indicators of health care quality remains ‘average or disappointing’ compared to international benchmarks according to the OECD. For example, although there is a comprehensive screening programme for breast and cervical cancer, survival rates are below the EU average (despite improvements in recent years). Rates of hospital admissions for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (combined) have improved at a faster rate than many other countries in recent years, but also remain well above the EU average. The UK has also slipped down international league tables for infant mortality and is now 15th out of 19 comparable countries. In a recent study that compared access to and quality of health care in 195 countries by analysing ‘health care-amenable mortality’ – ie, mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal if effective health care is in place – the UK is ranked 30th out of 195 countries – its overall score was similar to Portugal and Malta but lower than comparable countries like Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. "
It is invariably the ready ammunition of facts 'n' figures that the contending ideological parties in the annual grand remonstrance on the NHS resort to in order to bolster their respective cases.
The Winter 2017 / 18 clash of opinionated otiose cant differs somewhat markedly from previous annual tourneys in so far as the Spend -a -heck -load -More faction is noticeably a virtual appendage of the Remoaner anti - brexit lobby.
They have unashamedly incorporated their metropolitan elitist anti- brexit prejudices,stuff and nonsense about EU citizens,unrestricted EU labour market competition,etc. into their narrative of a NHS about to collapse because of a shortage of staff.
Which of course can be empirically refuted.An objective process that Remoaners find to be anathema.
And so the annual plethora of otiose ideological partisan cant and vacuous platitudes aka the " NHS is in Crisis " discourse is once again under way.
The answer to " will the NHS ever be out of a state of crisis?" appears after many decades to be; no.
The only differences to be discerned amongst all the world's national health systems is the degree to which they are all in one way or another perceived to be " performing " or functioning at a noticeably lower standard than any other arbitrarily chosen health system or systems to which they are compared at any point in time.
For example ,the reputable body on such matters , The King's Fund posted online on June 8 2017, ( herewith an extract gleaned ) from " How Does the NHS Compare Internationally ".
" Although the UK has been at the forefront of the development of measures of health care quality (like the national patient survey programme) and the use of quality improvement techniques (like evidence-based clinical guidelines), performance on some indicators of health care quality remains ‘average or disappointing’ compared to international benchmarks according to the OECD. For example, although there is a comprehensive screening programme for breast and cervical cancer, survival rates are below the EU average (despite improvements in recent years). Rates of hospital admissions for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (combined) have improved at a faster rate than many other countries in recent years, but also remain well above the EU average. The UK has also slipped down international league tables for infant mortality and is now 15th out of 19 comparable countries. In a recent study that compared access to and quality of health care in 195 countries by analysing ‘health care-amenable mortality’ – ie, mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal if effective health care is in place – the UK is ranked 30th out of 195 countries – its overall score was similar to Portugal and Malta but lower than comparable countries like Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. "
It is invariably the ready ammunition of facts 'n' figures that the contending ideological parties in the annual grand remonstrance on the NHS resort to in order to bolster their respective cases.
The Winter 2017 / 18 clash of opinionated otiose cant differs somewhat markedly from previous annual tourneys in so far as the Spend -a -heck -load -More faction is noticeably a virtual appendage of the Remoaner anti - brexit lobby.
They have unashamedly incorporated their metropolitan elitist anti- brexit prejudices,stuff and nonsense about EU citizens,unrestricted EU labour market competition,etc. into their narrative of a NHS about to collapse because of a shortage of staff.
Which of course can be empirically refuted.An objective process that Remoaners find to be anathema.
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