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Costs to Patient Care: United Kingdom
Physicians cannot provide the best care for patients in the United Kingdom’s and they are speaking out against their government-controlled systems
- According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Kingdom has well below the average doctor-to-patient ratio of other countries, ranking 26th. 38
- Doctors in the United Kingdom are beginning to openly express concern and dismay about the National Health Service (NHS). A group of 500 doctors in the United Kingdom have joined together to create “Doctors for Reform.” This group calls for NHS reform, stating on their Web site, “We once believed that the NHS was the finest health care system in the world. Today few health care professionals would make such a claim.” 39
- Dr. Jonathan Fielden, chairman of the Central Consultants and Specialists Committee, said that medical professionals in the United Kingdom are “angry because of this government’s mishandling of the health service.” He went on to say that the profession has “lost all confidence that the government can solve the problems it has created.” 40
- Dr. Ahmet Fuat, a long-time Darlington general practitioner, launched an outspoken attack on NHS, saying the NHS was no longer free at the point of use and is letting down vulnerable cancer patients. He also said restrictions on new cancer drugs widely prescribed in Europe and in the United States showed that the NHS was no longer meeting the needs of patients. “It saddens me that the NHS is withholding care from patients.” 41
- Dr. John Crippen (alias), a British doctor who has worked for more than 20 years in the NHS, has developed his own blog to “[watch] and [weep] as the Health Service, slowly but inexorably, is destroyed.” 42 His writing has appeared in the United Kingdom’s Guardian, one of the country’s largest newspapers. 43
- 38 “The Brain Drain: Myth and Reality – What it is and What Should be Done” By Ross Finnie, Queen’s University School of Policy Studies (January 2001)
- 39 www.doctorsforreform.com
- 40 Speech by Dr Jonathan Fielden, Chairman of the Central Consultants and Specialists Committee, at the Consultants Conference. British Medical Association. (June 6, 2007)
- 41 “Doctor hits out at NHS drugs policy” By Barry Nelson The Northern Echo (May 25, 2007)
- 42 See for example http://www.blogger.com/profile/06683912157707013827
- 43 MediAtlas
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The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization promoting innovative solutions that advance medical progress, reduce health disparities, extend life and make healthcare more affordable, preventive and patient-centered. CMPI also provides the public, policymakers and the media a reliable source of independent scientific analysis on issues ranging from personalized medicine, food and drug safety, health care reform and comparative effectiveness.