The collapse of our highly centralised National Health Service continues apace -- as hinted at by Tony Blair some days ago.
1. Patients are now being exported to Europe. NHS patients who have been awaiting operations for years in this country have now been allowed to go to Europe for their operations -- paid for by the NHS. The first batch of travelled to Lisle, France, yesterday on Eurostar railway. They will be treated in a French private hospital. 2. Alan Milburn, Minister for Health, has announced that hospitals will be allowed to manage themselves from now onwards (once they have gained enough "points" -- as decided by civil servants in London who still can't easily let go of control!). Those that want to be managed professionally by private firms for efficiency's sake will be able to do so. Anyway, this is beginning of the restoration of independence and innovation to the several thousand hospitals, private and local authority, that used to exist 54 years ago before the costly experiment was started. 3. Not only are patients having to wait on trolleys in hospital corridors (and in ambulances outside) for hours and sometimes a whole day or two before being treated, but many National Health Service hospital doctors who are on emergency call are also having to live in sub-standard accommodation. The British Medical Journal complain today about the hospital bedrooms allocated to emergency doctors (who work 70+ hours a week and need sleep whenever they can get it). Some rooms have cockroaches, others have no running water or toilets, others can't be locked. (One doctor, after returning from treating a patient, found that his room was occupied by another patient!) Many young doctors on call at NHS hospitals are now having to sleep in their own cars because their bedrooms are so disgusting. Keith Hudson __________________________________________________________ �Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
