Monday 27 January 2014

Rufus Hound wants you to die in a pool of your own piss

The NHS was in absolute crisis when the coalition came to power. Not that you could talk about it though, Labour had made the NHS a religion, to say anything negative, regardless of its failings, would an act of blasphemy. Mid Staffs was the result of this perfect storm of an above critique monopoly, whistle blowers scared to come out, a government (Labour) hushing up bad news for political reasons and no accountability.

Rufus Hound thinks this is how the NHS should be run, an unaccountable monopoly where it doesn't matter what service people get because they can't afford anything else. What he wants, unless you're rich, you know the kind of person who's family could afford to privately educate their children, if that you die of dehydration in a bed, laying in your own excrement and urine, as long as it's a bed that is untouched by the private sector.

Thing is Rufus thinks that Mid Staffs was caused by a few bad eggs, not a systematic failure of the structure in place.

Of course some of them screw up from time to time – sometimes with tragic results – but that’s because they’re human beings. Fallible human beings. And if you employ over a million of them, (as the NHS does), mistakes will be made. 

He has also proved his lefty credentials by quoting a "fact" without supporting evidence to link it up. Actually it screams of a lift from a "Dr" Eoin Clarke list that he later had to apologise for. 

It’s also the most cost effective health care system in the world. For every pound spent on the NHS, it returns a value of five times that to the economy.

Oh lets not forget the classic "It’s ours, not theirs" comment. Well what about those that support the NHS reforms? I earn less than the national average, hardly a member of the evil rich and I fully support it. 

Private companies working within the NHS can do brilliant things and actually increase the services available to us. I had an operation in 2012 and part of the process was an MRI scan that a private company did. They had fitted out an HGV with the scanner and equipment. Parking up at the hospital they see all the minor cases, leaving the hospital scanner for more complex issues, meaning I got seen much sooner. 
Mid Staffs, Hound thinks this is acceptable 
An element of competition can help as well, monopolies don't have to worry about how well they provide a service, not like you have any other choice. Remember the stories of how long it took to get a phone line before it was privatised? Do you want that service in healthcare?

Ultimately I think people will realise that it doesn't matter how universal health care is delivered, as long as it is. But imagine if Rufus was to get what he wanted. At least when his wife died of MRSA from a routine bunion operation he could take comfort in the fact it was in a fully public NHS.



P.S. Worth noting that he just happens to be getting big publicity at the exact same time he needs to sell tickets to a show he is in. A coincidence I am sure.

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