Does the government have any idea what the NHS is about?

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The BBC's reported:

High-profile NHS hospitals in England are to be encouraged by the government to set up profit-making branches abroad to help fund services in the UK.

An agency will aim to link hospitals such as Great Ormond Street with foreign governments that want access to British-run health services.

Investment would have to be drawn from hospitals' private UK work, but with profits ploughed back into the NHS.

I despair. At the same time as my local hospital in King's Lynn is under threat, not because it's bad but because it is "not viable" which is entirely down to the fact that it is small and remote, whilst doing essential work to service a community whose next nearest hospital is about 40 miles away, the government is looking for the diversion of NHS resources abroad.

To say that they have utterly forgotten the founding logic of the NHS is to dramatically understate the case. No doubt chief executives of hospital trusts taking their services elsewhere will be very well rewarded. Meanwhile people on many parts of the country will not get the services they need.

It's an extraordinary situation. And enough to make anyone committed to public service feel very angry.


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