Private medicine does not comply with this however, as in private care the ability to pay determines the health services provided to you. A two tier system is created due to this – one for the well off and who seek care for acute conditions and one for the poor, and serious and chronically ill who could not afford to be treated privately anyway.
When someone chooses to go private they are effectively queue jumping. I is argued that the private hospitals do the easy work leaving the NHS to deal with the difficult and expensive operations. For example childbirth, aids-related, suicide, long term care, transplants and alcohol and drug abuse related illnesses are all not usually treated in private care. Private hospitals do not provide on-site emergency facilities; consequently if a crises develops they have to be shifted to a NHS hospital. This effectively means private hospitals deal with the services they want to provide. This is unfair on the NHS and certainly it does not benefit from it, as more public money has to be spent.
On the other hand, in some cases the private system relieves pressure from the NHS. In standard operations people do not need to visit a NHS hospital therefore if people choose private medicine they are in fact lessening the burden on the NHS, as there is less people to provide a service for. The pay beds, which exist in our hospitals for private patients, give extra income to the NHS. These pay beds, however, leave less room for public patients although the extra revenue does benefit the NHS.
In addition to the two-tier system created there are implications on the staff between both sectors. Most nurses working in the private sector have been trained with public money from the NHS.
This means that when the nurses switch to the private sector they are effectively wasting public money to the advantage of the private sector. Many have essential skills, which are desperately needed in the NHS such as operating skills and intensive care where they are in short supply. On the other hand, a number of private hospitals offer nurse training and specialist post-qualification courses. This benefits the NHS as these nurses with extra skills may leave the private sector to join the NHS at any time.
Another concern is Consultants who can work for the NHS or Private Sector. Many have been known to neglect their NHS patients in favour of their private patients because of the greater amount of money earned. Although the right to receive private patients allows Consultants to earn similar earnings as they would abroad, nevertheless this stops consultants from moving to foreign health services allowing Britain to maintain it’s short supply of Consultants.
As an advantage for private health care a moral argument exists. Private patients contribute to the NHS through their taxes and National Insurance contributions. This means that they are still giving money to the NHS although they are not receiving care. Also when people use private medicine they are helping to add to the total amount off resources spent on health care. This again illustrates the benefit of the private sector.
In conclusion, Private health care does benefit the NHS to some extent with some pressure being relieved and the training of nurses with post graduate qualifications and alike. Nevertheless, the subject is delicate as private health care undermines NHS efficiency and draws away some nurses from public hospitals. I believe the two-tier system created by the private sector is unequal and as a democracy should not exist within our health system. Therefore private health care should be either eradicated or have its participation lowered because it is fundamentally wrong.
