Dr Crippens NHS Blog Doctor - latest

The government is proud of its increased expenditure on health care. It is proud of all the targets that have been hit. It says there are more doctors and more nurses than ever before. The people, meanwhile, are voting with their feet. In the 1960s the Wilson Labour government destroyed British state secondary education. The middle class moved their children into the private sector. And not just the well-heeled middle classes. Many not-so-well-off parents make huge sacrifices to secure a good education for their children. The New Labour government has started its battle to destroy British University education. Our best Universities, already starved off funds, are stealthily pressurised into dropping their standards so that low achieving students from the state education system can be admitted. Slowly but surely a trend is starting. The middle classes are casting their eyes over the Atlantic to the American Ivy League Universities. So far, it is only a trickle of our highest achievers. Soon the trickle will be a flood. Some of our best brains will be lost, possibly for ever. We are in the middle of the worst peace time recession of all time. Unemployment is soaring. Top rate tax (don’t forget national insurance) is soaring. Money is tight. Despite all this, more and more people are taking out private medical insurance. Why? Because, like Dr Crippen, they are scared of what might happen to them if they are admitted to an NHS Hospital. I hate the need for private health insurance. I hate the need for private education. I believe that a good standard of health care and education should be available to all, independent of means and status. Once again, people are voting with their feet. If the NHS is so good, why have over seven million people deserted it? And it is not just the patients who are leaving.     The doctors are leaving     The midwives are leaving     The hospital nurses are leaving     The community nurses are leaving     The dentists are leaving Soon there will be no one left. The NHS will be a ghost town. Dr John Crippen's weekly diary. The trials and tribulations, the pleasures and pitfalls of family medicine in the modern British National Health Service. Blog Site: http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/2009/04/leaving-nhs.html Article Published: Wednesday 29th April 2009