Submitted by crinadmin on
The British Nnational Health System (NHS) is facing its greatest crisis for 60 years. It will soon be privatised, unless the public firmly protests. British children's rights are threatened in two main ways. 1. Even if children's access to free care continues, their parents' access will not, family budgets will be affected, and the services they receive will generally be commercialised and run primarily for shareholders, not for patients. 2. The hugely expensive new systems to replace the NHS are to be paid off over the next decades, binding future generations into paying back today's debts plus interest, as well as having to pay for their own new services. Here are a few important facts: Since 1997, hospitals have been rebuilt with Public Private Funding Initiatives (PFIs/ PPPs). The NHS pays very high 'rent' and interest over 20-60 years to private companies who provide hospital buildings and support services. After that, the buildings still belong to the companies (see A Pollock NHS.plc, Verso, 2005). Much of the extra funding for the NHS is now spent on managers, lawyers, advertisers, marketing and public relations consultants who are working to turn hospital services over to the private market. For example, the Royal Free Hospital London is sacking 500 staff but advertising for new managers this month. Another high cost is that the NHS has to contract out a percentage of operations to private companies, who are paid 11 per cent over NHS rates for creaming off the easier cases and are paid whether or not the operations are performed. Privatising of primary care is going further, through LIFT a more ambitious version of PFI, to include all clinical staff and services, as well as support ones. The government plans that private companies (sooner or later these will be the giant American and South African companies) will have contracts that give them the sole right to provide primary health care in agreed geographical areas with no competition allowed. The companies plan to centralise doctors' practices into super size profit making surgeries, often hard for people without cars to access, and to stop people from using services 'too often'. The rush to have everyone's name on computer records is partly in order to cost every item that they consume, and to control their access and use of services. This will infringe privacy rights. People in South Africa and Canada are protesting about their loss of free health care. Modern medicine aims to be scientifically based on sound research evidence. The USA provides the evidence base that private services do not work well: 40 million people with no insurance cover, an estimated 10 per cent of costs are lost through fraud, and over 30 per cent on administration and audit. NHS administration costs used to be 4 per cent and with the growing market they have risen to 13 per cent so far. For further information see Keep our NHS Public