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For all those who think the recent NHS reforms were a coalition plot, it should be noted that the new Chief Executive of NHS England, credited with being the architect of Labour's health reforms and seeing these as blocked from implementation by opposition within Labour, clearly perceives the Health and Social Care Act as their logical extension (1). His appointment suggests that the current government agrees with this analysis and has found the man to drive the privatisation agenda forward. In the coming election the marketisation of healthcare must be made a key issue for all candidates. Ideological rather than evidence based approaches to 'reform' should be challenged. The limitations of the market as a 'silver bullet' are eloquently summarised in a recent review by David Hunter (2). While Stevens claims that "national pay bargaining may have lead to more than 3,000 deaths in the last decade" (1), Hunter quotes the health economist Gavin Mooney: "neoliberalism kills."
In writing about Simon Stevens. Peter Davies refers to our 'dysfunctional NHS'.
The mad witches McKinsey, Lansley and Cameron have created a wasteful mess but the fact remains that despite them the NHS is found to be a world-beater on most measurements that really matter. This is despite big business buying the politicians.
The NHS is highly functional.
By the way, if Mr. Stevens thinks anyone will be impressed by giving up 10% of his very large salary he is extremely naive.
Re: Simon Stevens: new NHS leader who’s “not just Mr Insurance USA”
For all those who think the recent NHS reforms were a coalition plot, it should be noted that the new Chief Executive of NHS England, credited with being the architect of Labour's health reforms and seeing these as blocked from implementation by opposition within Labour, clearly perceives the Health and Social Care Act as their logical extension (1). His appointment suggests that the current government agrees with this analysis and has found the man to drive the privatisation agenda forward. In the coming election the marketisation of healthcare must be made a key issue for all candidates. Ideological rather than evidence based approaches to 'reform' should be challenged. The limitations of the market as a 'silver bullet' are eloquently summarised in a recent review by David Hunter (2). While Stevens claims that "national pay bargaining may have lead to more than 3,000 deaths in the last decade" (1), Hunter quotes the health economist Gavin Mooney: "neoliberalism kills."
1. Stevens S. NHS reform is a risk worth taking. Financial Times2010, Jul 15. www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2932b84e-904a-11df-ad26-00144feab49a.html?siteedition....
2. Hunter DJ. 'To Market! To Market!. http://chpi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/David-Hunter-to-market-to-...
Competing interests: No competing interests