Apparently the Liberal Democrats are going to propose a localist agenda in their NHS reform plans. Orange Booker and Health spokesman, Steve Webb told ePolitix, "if local people set local health priorities they should also be able to the determine the scale of local services."
Personally, I don't have a problem with this sort of idea in principle. The notion of local accountability for local services which serve local priorities makes perfect sense when placed against the current status quo of centrally planned and organised healthcare provision.
2 comments:
The French have a local system of healthcare, where the providers are autonomous. It resulted in a 10.9 billion euro deficit, and the sad deaths of 15,000 elderly people in 2003. Localisation reduces the ability of the centre to bear down on costs.
If you accept that the cost will be more, and think that this is a price worth paying for local control, fine. I'm not sure this is what the Lib Dems are saying though.
Crap logic:
The French did something local and failed, therefore all attempts at anything local will fail.
Do not pass Go, go directly back to school.
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