Comments on: Richard Smith: Why the NHS can’t be left to government http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2008/06/23/richard-smith-why-the-nhs-cant-be-left-to-government/ Just another blogs.bmj.com weblog Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:18:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Roshen Mathew http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2008/06/23/richard-smith-why-the-nhs-cant-be-left-to-government/#comment-2597 Roshen Mathew Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:17:15 +0000 http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/?p=401#comment-2597 Privatization of health care indeed promotes competition and better health care. But in developed countries having socialized medicine as the major form of health care to its citizens, the entry of private health insurance companies who deliver healthcare would also cause unhealthy competition in the field. These health insurance companies always find their 'black sheep' to bribe in political circles and tip the scales in their direction. If an organization like the NHS thus has less autonomy of its functioning and has to depend on the treasury for its functioning, it might result in less resources being granted to it. This would cause even the middle class people preferring private health care instead of the NHS in the long run and the NHS being used by people who can’t afford health care. This would result in poorer care being delivered to poor people. Few developed countries have private health care and socialized health care systems running synchronously. The Joint Commission has improved health care in US hospitals, but not as significant as the author thinks. However, I totally agree to the fact that an organization like the Joint Commission in the UK monitoring the hospitals and health delivery systems would make a significant improvement to the NHS. Privatization of health care indeed promotes competition and better health care. But in developed countries having socialized medicine as the major form of health care to its citizens, the entry of private health insurance companies who deliver healthcare would also cause unhealthy competition in the field. These health insurance companies always find their ‘black sheep’ to bribe in political circles and tip the scales in their direction. If an organization like the NHS thus has less autonomy of its functioning and has to depend on the treasury for its functioning, it might result in less resources being granted to it. This would cause even the middle class people preferring private health care instead of the NHS in the long run and the NHS being used by people who can’t afford health care. This would result in poorer care being delivered to poor people. Few developed countries have private health care and socialized health care systems running synchronously.

The Joint Commission has improved health care in US hospitals, but not as significant as the author thinks. However, I totally agree to the fact that an organization like the Joint Commission in the UK monitoring the hospitals and health delivery systems would make a significant improvement to the NHS.

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