If the meeting of the British Medical Association (BMA) is representative of British physicians, writes BMJ editor Fiona Godlee, "there's an astonishing consensus among UK doctors about the health service (they) want." The BMA met in Belfast this week, and Godlee says "There was no mistaking the passion among BMA representatives for a publicly funded, freely available national health service....Equally overwhelming was rejection of US-style health care." She writes that those at the meeting agreed that the values of the current British National Health Service (NHS) could not be delivered through private corporations.
Godlee writes: "There's enough bad news about America's health system to justify this wholesale rejection. On top of the familiar spectacle of inefficient and fragmented care, spiralling costs, and growing inequities of access, there's now evidence that quality of care is patchy and worse overall than in other developed nations. There's an irony in the UK government being in thrall to US-style health care, while US commentators now hold as their exemplar the Veterans Health Administration—America's nearest thing to the NHS."
Nonethless, the BMA meeting showed the concerns over future directions of the British health care system. According to the BMJ, some doctors "blamed the government for the financial crisis in the NHS, saying that it has taken a record amount of money away from the care of patients and 'squandered' it on unproved reforms."
Posted by schwitz at June 30, 2006 05:20 AM | TrackBack