Support Stafford Hospital campaigner Karen Howell, the Stafford parliamentary candidate for the National Health Action Party, said the NHS funding crisis was “a myth and a fallacy”. “If we got rid of all the bureaucracy and the immense costs of the purchaser-provider split and internal market we could save billions to be spent on patient care,” Mrs Howell said. “Creating this non-existent market has imposed immense costs on the NHS. “And splitting purchasers and providers really is getting in the way of creating a coherent and well-planned service that operates in the interests of patients.” Mrs Howell warned that England’s NHS, where administration costs are currently 15 per cent of total spending, was heading in the same direction as the US, where administration costs account for 20 per cent of health spending. By contrast, she said, countries which had a fully state-run health service had costs of around 6 to 7 per cent of spending. “That is the direction we should be heading in,” she said. “We need a fully public health service.” And she warned that the financial problems faced by Mid Staffordshire’s hospitals were now being replicated across the country as health trusts grappled with the effects of government reorganisations and “creeping privatisation”.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 10:40:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015