Meek covers a multitude of sins of omission and commission that is the NHS
Like the US health care system it is permeated by perverse incentives,
evidence free variations in clinical practice and advococy of the elusive
Holy Grail of integrtaed care/ACO/HMOs/purchaser-provider splits. Like the
Americans we continually "redisorganise" our health care systems with
factions adoopting new untested models as "inevitable" cures for ill
defined deficiencies in structure, process and outcome. Du Puy/Johnson and
Johnson and their ilk purvey deficient hip prosteses and drugs of uncertain
cost effectivenss. Politicians seek the nirvana of improved efficiency by
encouraging private enterprise which in health care usually produces
similar problems to the state because inter alia of robust medical
monopolies that survive like rocks in the storm. The NHS has to make
"efficiency savings" of £20bn and like Americans the belief is that this is
achievable by reducing variations/shifting resources and mainatining high
quality services. Pigs may fly! Politicians live in hope! Patients tremble
as do those seeking to provide them with high quality cost effective care
Time for lunch! Have a nice day! Alan Maynard (Professor of Health
Economics, University of York; former Chair York Hospitals NHS Foundation
Trust (a public hospital serviing 300,000))
On Nov 19 2011, Michael Gusmano wrote:
>Dear AAHPN,
>
> Adam Oliver, our colleague and energetic founder of this valuable
> network, has asked a small group of us to take over the management of
> AAHPN. I'm pleased to announce that P.G. Forest from the Trudeau
> Foundation, Tom Foubister from LSE, Colleen Grogan from the University of
> Chicago, David McDaid from LSE, Calum Paton from Keele University and I
> have agreed to share these duties. I'm sure you will all join me in
> thanking Adam for creating this group and keeping it going for such a
> long time. I hope it will continue to serve as a valuable source of
> information and exchange for all of us interested in the UK, US -- and
> thanks to the addition of P.G. -- Canadian health systems.
>
> To help restart our discussions, I thought I would share with all of you
> the following essay by Meek in the London Review of Books. I found it to
> be a helpful update on current NHS politics and would enjoy hearing your
> reactions to it.
>
>http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n18/james-meek/its-already-happened
>
>All the best,
>Michael Gusmano
>
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