Every once in a while I take a diversion from my usual topics, and that usually results in a rant. This is one of those posts.
There has been a great deal of coverage about the current government’s plans to inject more private enterprise into the publicly funded healthcare system in the UK. Let me tell you about my experiences this evening, a tiny little microcosm of what private sector influence on the healthcare system might mean.
My 15 month old son has an ear infection. It’s nothing particularly serious (more mess than discomfort on his behalf) but resulted in a trip to the GP’s this evening to get him seen as it’s the second such infection in the same number of weeks. The doctor took a look, prescribed some antibiotics, and then sent us on our way. By this time it was late, because the computer system at the GP’s surgery had crashed after some remote updates from the software supplier, and that loused everything up for them.
I just missed the most local pharmacy to our house as their lights went off as I drove up, and then started a something of a wild goose chase across a swathe of South West London. The short version – 10 pharmacies, only 2 were open. Both of those pharmacies had a generic version of the drug my son needed, but neither could dispense because the doctor had prescribed a branded version.
Let’s look at that from a private ownership perspective: the GP, a partner in private small business that contracts its services to the NHS, had in some way been convinced by one of the (private) pharmaceutical companies that their version of the antibiotic would be better prescribed than (presumably cheaper) generic versions; we were then running late because of the software management failings of a (private) service provider (hey- I know – crap happens…); the (private) pharmacies didn’t have stock of the branded good. Net result – the patient gets a crap service (no prescription for Milo until tomorrow when I have to wait for the second pharmacy I visited to have a delivery of the branded item) and the NHS pays more (because I work in marketing now and I know that branding doesn’t come for free). Which, of course, means that we all pay more because, remember, we pay for all of this in our taxes.
Is the government’s solution to our healthcare woes – more private enterprise – really the way forward? The more contact that I have had with the health service over the years have convinced me more and more that the problems that we have aren’t ones of state or private ownership. The problems are ones of the distorted balance of power wielded by competing professional interests that make up the health service: for example if pharmacists (who are all very well qualified) were able to over-rule a GP (it’s the same stuff, just with a pretty box) and supply the in-stock and cheaper drug, my night would have been a lot calmer. More “enterprise” in the health sector is going to do nothing to reform where the health services’ problems really lie – and will (in my ill informed and anecdotal opinion) just result in a bunch more stupid.
Rant over. Thank you for your patients. (ho ho)
mmitII 