Saturday, 13 February 2010

The Privatisation of Primary Care



Produced and directed by Dr Grumble

9 comments:

Dramfineday said...

Oh no, please don't........this is too near to the truth to be amusing ( even if the robot's are good).

subrosa said...

Dr Grumble and his wife are both GPs Dram and I respect his opinion.

Dr Grumble said...

Actually Dr Grumble is a hospital doctor. Mrs Grumble used to be a GP but now works in a hospital.

Unfortunately, that does not make my video any further from the truth.

I really do wish that this was all make-believe. Sadly it depicts exactly what is happening. South of the border anyway. Those of us who work for the NHS in England know full well what is happening but I am not sure that the public do. If this short video does anything to increase awareness of the inexorable progression of privatisation, it will have done its job.

Dramfineday said...

Dire, absolutely dire.......why are we letting these privateers anywhere near sick people? More to the point who do we turn to to stop it? Or is this one of these viral things that have to pass through the body politic before people see it for what it is ........a rip off, a la PFI?

subrosa said...

Dr Grumble, I will amend my post and my apology.

I'm sure you know here in Scotland we refuse to have any form of privatisation but should the SNP government lose power I can see that changing quickly

The unionist parties are desperate to semi-privatise health.

subrosa said...

Dram, this is England and here we presently refuse to introduce privatisation of any kind.

The problem in England appears to be, as Dr Grumble says, people aren't interested.

They will be when their taxes go higher because someone must pay for the profits of these companies.

Dr Grumble said...

I agree that in Enlgand it appears that we are not interested. In fact my belief is that there is a great concern amongst the public about the privatisation of public services. The problem in England has been that there hasn't actually been much point in getting interested because all the major parties, having been leaned on by Big Business, have essentially the same policies. In Scotland the SNP has provided a choice. Are there other factors related to Scotland's history too? It seems to me that universities, schooling and hospitals have always been more important to Scotland than to England.

The amazing thing is that it just may be that bloggers are now being listened to. The consequences of unbridled private sector greed in the world of finance has given credibility to those of us expressing concern about the intent of Big Business. Unfortunately the perceived wisdom is that the government cannot run anything well whereas private business can and must. This view was bolstered by the collapse of communism making it very difficult for those with genuine concerns about the involvement of private businesses to be heard.

But only this morning on the Today programme I heard a politician (Tory, I think, but how can you tell any more) expounding the virtues of cooperatives as a new way to unfetter the public services. That is an advance. Even the right wingers have cold feet about privatisation. The truth though is that it is government that applies the fetters which impede innovation and they will do this to public services they pay for however they are run. In the private world it is called regulation - the thing they forgot about in the world of banking.

subrosa said...

Dr Grumble, you're clutching at straws a little when you say co-operatives are a new way to unfetter the public services.

As far as I'm aware the said cop-operatives will be the 'charities' - you know those funded with government money - who will provide the services.

Isn't it strange how one word can change our attitudes? These fake charities are little more than tentacles of government. Government at a distance and therefore far more difficult for responsibility to be sourced.

Yes I agree with Scots do have a different sense of priorities. We do want our core provisions to be catered for and only then do we squabble over the financial residue. Long may that continue and long may our NHS stay just that.

Dr Grumble said...

I don't disagree, Subrosa. I have independently expressed my own doubts about cooperatives.

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