Private medical insurance boosted by NHS failings

New figures show that UK citizens are being driven in record numbers to private medical insurance by NHS failings.

 

The findings are backed up by an unprecedented public statement by 500 senior doctors who have warned that the NHS cannot continue to meet rising public expectations, and that the time has come to consider a new way to deliver healthcare in Britain.

 

The doctors all work in the NHS and are committed to its values of universal and equitable access to health care. Many also work in the private healthcare insurance sector. They have formed a new non-party group with the aim of starting a national debate on healthcare reform.

 

The group has released a new ICM poll on attitudes of the public to the NHS. 69 per cent of the public agree "the NHS was the right idea when it was introduced in the 1940s, but Britain has changed and we need a different health care system now."

 

The group, made up of doctors from all disciplines, advocates considering the social insurance systems that deliver higher standards of medical care in Switzerland, France and Germany. It opposes the US approach to funding private healthcare in which the poorest members of society are denied anything more than basic medical care.