How the myth of a ‘free’ NHS kills.
Imagine a free airline that sets no limit on the number of passengers that can board an aircraft. There would be crash after crash. Would the public be content to watch a jumbo jet in flames almost every week? It is exactly what is going on in the NHS, with 500 patients dying each week for lack of attention. The myth of a ‘free’ NHS kills.
‘Free’ anything: health services, supermarkets, trains, you name it, do not work, especially if insurance premiums, (taxes) paid by people over a lifetime are stolen by people (illegal immigrants) who should not be here.
A charge of £10 for attending A & E unless you have a doctor’s letter, or have been brought in as an emergency by ambulance, would solve this problem overnight. No need to wait for Whitehall to embark on a year of discussions to see how it could be done. By that time 26,00 will have died. Each hospital can hire a supermarket manager to install a means of taking the fee, by card or by cash.
What about those who cannot afford a tenner? If you as a member of the middle class feel especially strongly about this, attend A & E with a wad of notes and decide yourself. After all £10 is only the price of a couple of expressos, and think of the goodwill it would generate. Similarly, representatives of the Muslim, Hindu, Church of England, Catholic, Buddhist, and secular communities could place representatives in A & Es ready to offer both financial and, more importantly, social and moral support. A major cause of bed blocking is that health officials are bureaucrats and people are just numbers. Officials go home at night. To religions and charities the poor are individuals for whom continuous sacrifices and moral commitment are to be made. Salisbury Review.
