The NHS is broken, it needs reinventing

The NHS is broken, it needs reinventing

05 Oct 2004

The panel debate the motion 'The NHS is broken, it needs reinventing'.

Arguing in favour of the motion are Professor Kenneth Minogue, Harriet Sergeant, and Dr Maurice Slevin.

Kenneth Minogue looks into the history of the NHS, a fifty-year old institution, and the historical climate in which it was created. He explains the negative image of the NHS in the media. For Minogue the problem is political interference, and the solution is decentralisation.

Harriet Sergeant provides vivid anecdotes that illustrate the negligent and random attitude of NHS care. Like Kenneth Minogue, she asks for the termination of political interference in the healthcare system and asserts the need for a greater degree of power to reside with the patients.

Maurice Slevin details the demoralisation of NHS staff and the limitations the NHS structure places on their abilities. Slevin takes inspiration from European systems that provide extensive health insurance, allowing for the patient to fund their healthcare and enter into a direct relationship with it.

Arguing against the motion are Lord Hunt, Dr Mike Fitzpatrick, and Professor Raymond Tallis.

Raymond Tallis explains, with relevant and pervasive statistics, that the NHS is both efficient in providing health benefits and cost efficient as an institution. He then turns to the private sector, which he feels cannot provide hope for a better system.

Lord Hunt asserts that the NHS is an institution to be proud of, that poor quality has existed, and still does exist, on rare occasions, but that the broader image is one of constant redevelopment and improvement.

Mike Fitzpatrick discusses the issues he believes to be rife in society: the obsession with health, the anxiety over ailments, the distrust in diagnoses. He suggests that there needs to be a change in society and contemporary attitudes before we can hope for an NHS that delivers what we expect of it.

First vote: 202 For, 103 Against, 109 Don't know

Final vote: 231 For, 165 Against, 32 Don't know

The motion is passed by 66 votes.

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