The proposed NHS reforms

Saigyouji

Stuff here because I'm lazy.

 

This kinda makes me nervous. ...Ok, that's an understatement. It makes me really nervous.

IanExMachina

 One of the more important and worrying points:

Physicians and others employees of the NHS are primarily worried about the bill's intention to amend one of the founding pillars of the NHS to read "any willing provider" rather than the current language guaranteeing a needed service exclusively via the NHS and its direct affiliates and partners. Changing of the language of the NHS tenets to read "any willing provider" takes away that requirement and allows private sector providers to have a potentially major say inside the NHS, potentially introducing private-sector operations and pricing within the NHS and even opening up local NHS operations to the possibility of forced closure because the private industry could out-compete them and corral the NHS services into bankruptcy. The British Medical Association has said that "Forcing commissioners of care to tender contracts to any willing provider, including ... commercial companies, could destabilise local health economies and fragment care for patients. Adding price competition into the mix could also allow large commercial companies to enter the NHS market and chase the most profitable contracts, using their size to undercut on price, which could ultimately damage local services."