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Completely agree about new public management/internal market - vast amounts of money is wasted on administration, and this is what should be cut in the name of 'efficiency savings'. And yeah, it's not a matter of R vs. L so much - the previous Labour govt. did just as much to advance the management structures/reorganisations that we are reaping the (grim) rewards of now. However the current batch of Conservatives are a particularly nasty bunch who are hell bent on destroying the NHS for ideological reasons alone (Letwin/Refeood et al).
Regarding GP's they have actually been independent organisations since the inception of the NHS for precisely this reason - but you're right in terms of inept politicians/managers making short sighted decisions which end up doing a lot of damage in the long run.
If you want more insight in to this, I'd recommend checking out the videos of the debates from the recent TalkNHS event on the royal society of medicine FB page - super interesting and some good solutions too.
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kimchi
russmeyer
Interesting thread. I work in public healthcare in Sweden and though I have no experience of the NHS or know the scope of its underfunding &/or privatisation, the issues discussed in this thread largely apply over here as well. I'd imagine many commenting are convinced it's to do with left/right government being in charge atm but I'm not so sure. I think many of the issues facing public health care are built into the way it's managed regardless of political colour. Read up on new public management. It's my mantra to bring this up as the root of all evil in publically funded services. Some silly cunts back in the late 80s borrowed the language of management consulting, mixed it up with soviet budget planning and threw in a large dose of mistrust in the professionals working within health care, schools, police etc and the result is what we see today.
I agree that privatisation of health services has generally not benefited society as a whole but I think it could, especially on the GP level as it could make primary care personnel more in charge of their everyday situation. The trouble is the politicians poor ability/cluelessness of crafting solid contracts to ensure best bang for buck for people. I.e. only basing selection on which provider claims to offer the service cheapest and not factoring in continuity, long term interest & future plans etc.