Well, here’s an interesting idea. Because they want to sort out the problem of long-term care, the government is thinking of scrapping the consultation started to try to find ways of sorting out the problem of long-term care. They’re right. We’ve had consultations, Royal Commissions and action plans for nearly 25 years. All of which have said it will cost lots of money and taxes will have to go up. Which, of course becomes the next government’s problem.
Years ago when I worked in Greece, families used to fly their poorly relatives to London to get better medical treatment. Now it’s cheaper, even with the cost of flights and hotels, to go to Lithuania for a hip replacement and Hungary or Turkey for a bit of dental work.
In the real world, large chunks of the NHS are already sort-of privatised. In Gloucester, many cataract operations are carried out by a private company; which, yes, has cut waiting times considerably. In Oxford, three GP practices are now owned by a private company....
Pension rules have, since ‘Pensions Simplification’ a few years ago, become ridiculously complex. Much of the ad hoc, short term stuff added since has had unforeseen effects, such as huge tax bills for doctors having to work extra hours to keep the NHS afloat. They...