Yesterday healthcare in the United Kingdom was the focus of a segment on the Lou Dobbs Show. Lou’s lead in to the segment (reported on by Kitty Pilgrim) was, “In fact almost 60 percent of Britons believe the system requires fundamental change. Kitty Pilgrim has our report.”
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Go to a doctor in Britain, you won't have to pay when you leave. It's the same at the hospital. All health services are publicly funded by the National Health Service, funded by taxes. For that reason, a survey revealed only two percent of people in the U.K. who had a medical problem did not seek treatment because of costs. Peter Pitts (ph) of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, a nonpartisan research group, says the upside to the U.K. health system is universal coverage.
PETER PITTS, CTR. FOR MEDICINE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST: The NHS delivers healthcare today in the classic British tradition of muddling through. It’s mediocre care for everybody.
PILGRIM: The British government sets the budget and is charged with determining what will and will not be paid for. Critics point out that cutting-edge drug treatments for Alzheimer's, cancer and other severe conditions are often not included on a list of medicines that the government agency known as NICE will allow for reimbursement. Peter Pitts says it's a system that has real shortcomings.
PITTS: You can either accept a one size fits all health care system, which really doesn't fit anybody all that well, which is really terrific if you're not sick or very sick. But once you have cancer or advanced stages of lots of diseases and you really need cutting-edge medicine that system is really not equipped to provide it with excellence as ours is here.
PILGRIM: Now a 2007 study found that 57 percent of the people in the U.K. said the system really needed significant overhaul. Some in the U.K. have decided to opt out of the national health system and pay for private medical coverage. It is available. But anyone taking on private medical care has to opt out of the national health system, so a telling point is in the last decade some British companies are actually offering private health care as a recruitment perk for their employees.
Video posting of the complete segment shortly.
On a related and very timely note, the Times of London reports today that:
“Medical leaders have warned that shortages of doctors, nurses and other clinical staff are putting the NHS under unsustainable pressure as a generation of health workers enters retirement amid cutbacks in junior doctors’ working hours.
The number of vacancies for hospital doctors, dentists, nurses and midwives has risen for the first time in five years as trusts struggle to recruit and retain staff. New data from the NHS Information Centre revealed that more than one in twenty medical and dental posts were vacant at the end of March, in some cases for months at a time, while thousands of nursing and midwifery posts were also unfilled.
Of the total number of vacant posts, one in five — 5,500 jobs — had been left unfilled for three months or more, suggesting long-term problems with recruitment. Senior staff leaving the service and the reluctance of younger people to replace them were blamed for the shortfalls as total vacancy rates increased across most staff groups. Doctors’ leaders have also warned that the European Working Time Directive, which from this month limits junior doctors to a maximum 48-hour week, could create shortages, leaving trusts to rely on temporary or locum staff.”
The complete Times story can be found here.
These times demand the Times (of London).
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Go to a doctor in Britain, you won't have to pay when you leave. It's the same at the hospital. All health services are publicly funded by the National Health Service, funded by taxes. For that reason, a survey revealed only two percent of people in the U.K. who had a medical problem did not seek treatment because of costs. Peter Pitts (ph) of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, a nonpartisan research group, says the upside to the U.K. health system is universal coverage.
PETER PITTS, CTR. FOR MEDICINE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST: The NHS delivers healthcare today in the classic British tradition of muddling through. It’s mediocre care for everybody.
PILGRIM: The British government sets the budget and is charged with determining what will and will not be paid for. Critics point out that cutting-edge drug treatments for Alzheimer's, cancer and other severe conditions are often not included on a list of medicines that the government agency known as NICE will allow for reimbursement. Peter Pitts says it's a system that has real shortcomings.
PITTS: You can either accept a one size fits all health care system, which really doesn't fit anybody all that well, which is really terrific if you're not sick or very sick. But once you have cancer or advanced stages of lots of diseases and you really need cutting-edge medicine that system is really not equipped to provide it with excellence as ours is here.
PILGRIM: Now a 2007 study found that 57 percent of the people in the U.K. said the system really needed significant overhaul. Some in the U.K. have decided to opt out of the national health system and pay for private medical coverage. It is available. But anyone taking on private medical care has to opt out of the national health system, so a telling point is in the last decade some British companies are actually offering private health care as a recruitment perk for their employees.
Video posting of the complete segment shortly.
On a related and very timely note, the Times of London reports today that:
“Medical leaders have warned that shortages of doctors, nurses and other clinical staff are putting the NHS under unsustainable pressure as a generation of health workers enters retirement amid cutbacks in junior doctors’ working hours.
The number of vacancies for hospital doctors, dentists, nurses and midwives has risen for the first time in five years as trusts struggle to recruit and retain staff. New data from the NHS Information Centre revealed that more than one in twenty medical and dental posts were vacant at the end of March, in some cases for months at a time, while thousands of nursing and midwifery posts were also unfilled.
Of the total number of vacant posts, one in five — 5,500 jobs — had been left unfilled for three months or more, suggesting long-term problems with recruitment. Senior staff leaving the service and the reluctance of younger people to replace them were blamed for the shortfalls as total vacancy rates increased across most staff groups. Doctors’ leaders have also warned that the European Working Time Directive, which from this month limits junior doctors to a maximum 48-hour week, could create shortages, leaving trusts to rely on temporary or locum staff.”
The complete Times story can be found here.
These times demand the Times (of London).
