THE NHS is today fighting for its life, with even more savage cuts to come after the election.
The Tories are actively planning to regionalise the NHS, creating a number of separate entities (starting with the Devo-Manc local NHS) that will be much easier for the privateers to gobble up.
However, the drug companies and the private agencies are already making billions out of exploiting and plundering the NHS. The savage cuts and the refusal to train enough doctors and nurses is costing the NHS and undermining patient care.
There are two new reports out that bring out very clearly how the NHS is being looted by big business.
Civitas is urging the government to invest more in training to reduce reliance on locums and agency staff.
It argues that ‘a larger pool of dependable permanent staff would enhance workforce stability and patient safety’.
Its report adds that, ‘A failure to train enough staff in the NHS is leading to an over-reliance on agency staff, locums and overseas recruitment which is wasteful of money and undermining patient care.’
As a result of this failure, a product of the £20bn of cuts that have been made in the NHS, ‘non-permanent staff like locum doctors and agency nurses are costing the NHS about £2.5 billion a year.’
The Civitas report points out that, ‘The typical charge for a consultant from an agency is £1,760 a day, equivalent to a pro rata salary of £459,096. Given that the salary of an NHS consultant is between £75,249 and £101,451, four consultants could be employed by the NHS for the price of one agency staff member.
‘Agency nurses cost in the region of £24 to £29 an hour, equivalent to between £47,000 and £56,000 a year; while the salary for an NHS band 5 nurse is between £21,478 and £27,901.’
The report adds that, ‘The number of specialist emergency medicine training post vacancies is huge. At present only half of these vacancies are being filled and this will eventually result in a “lost cohort” of consultants.’
At the same time the drug companies are raking it in!
The BMJ to its credit is demanding that ‘drug companies should not be able to block access to clinically acceptable alternatives – and questions whether the UK’s drug appraisal system acts in the best interests of public health.’
It urges that, ‘NHS doctors should be allowed to prescribe a cheap, safe and effective drug for the degenerative eye disease, wet age related macular degeneration (AMD) – a leading cause of blindness among older patients.’ Editor in chief, Dr Fiona Godlee says: ‘Doctors and academics have carried out clinical trials despite threats and intimidation – and doctors’ leaders should follow suit and not allow themselves to be bullied either … and to act on (trial patients’) altruism.’
The licensed treatment, Lucentis (ranibizumab) is estimated to cost $1,950 per dose compared with $50 per dose for Avastin (bevacizumab), which is not licensed for AMD. Both drugs are owned by the same company (Roche), although Lucentis is marketed by Novartis in the UK.
The BMJ article said, ‘Publicly funded trials have shown that bevacizumab is as safe and effective as ranibizumab – and allowing its use could release £102m a year that the NHS could re-invest in other frontline patient services.
‘Yet new evidence uncovered by The BMJ reveals a campaign by the drug manufacturers to “undermine and divert attention” from the results of these trials.
‘Emails obtained under a freedom of information request show that clinicians with ties to Novartis urged some primary care trusts to pull out of one trial. The BMJ has also learnt of attempts by Novartis to “derail” a second publicly funded UK trial.’ The private drug companies are making billions out of the NHS and will stop at nothing to keep it this way.
The Tories want to destroy the NHS through privatisation, while Miliband’s Labour just want to cap private sector profits.
The only way to save the NHS is to bring down the Tories on May 7, and then go forward to a socialist revolution and a workers government. This government will evict the private sector from the NHS, nationalise the drug companies, and bring in worers’ management of the NHS service.