Tuesday, January 02, 2007

REFORM says..................

Health

The problems of British healthcare are not due to lack of resources. Recent spending increases have lifted Britain above the European average spending on healthcare and by 2008 Britain will
be spending at the levels of countries such as the Netherlands and France.




But despite some marginal improvements, such as a reduction in the longest waits for hospital treatment, standards of care remain far behind peer countries. Rather than a lack of resources,
the reason for poor performance lies in the structure of the National Health Service.


There are three steps to reforming healthcare:


Change the NHS mission statement, from maximising the health of the nation to focusing on individual patient need;


Liberate provision; and


Put spending power in the hands of patients.