WAITING lists are a very clear sign that there are simply not enough resources in the NHS. And with the coronavirus adding even further to the wait for healthcare, the situation is only getting worse.
The investigation of worrying symptoms – weight loss or rectal bleeding, for example – now comes with an increased and possibly dangerous waiting time, and hip or knee replacements and cataract surgery have for many become far-off hopes rather than planned certainties.
It’s telling that a recent survey for the private health sector found that more than 50 per cent of the NHS workers contacted either had insurance to cover the costs of private care or were actively considering buying a policy.
There was a time when doctors and their families wouldn’t have dreamed of any alternative to being in the care of NHS colleagues, but those days are well and truly over. Private health insurance gives what the internal market – brought into the NHS by the Thatcher government – promised but never delivered: choice, as well as the opportunity to sidestep the penalty and trauma of the waiting list.
Care in the private sector, paid for by insurance, is far from perfect – the insurance firms want to control their costs and do so by rigorous policing of claims.
But if leading healthcare professionals are opting for private health cover, it tells us something about the state of the NHS: the cracks in the system are widening, and the people in the know do not want to fall between them.
Those of us reliant on the NHS must consider the difficult question of what exactly we think is the bare minimum the health service should provide, because it’s clear it cannot be everything to all people. Unless we are willing to pay more...
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