The NHS in Scotland is ruled by events in England
With budgets tight and borrowing strictly limited it difficult, probably impossible, for the Scottish government to make up any large budget shortfall and the passing of the Westminster, Health and Social Care Bill which provided for the wholesale privatisation of the NHS in England will have very significant effects on Scotland.
Increasingly private healthcare companies financing an controlling the English NHS will result in less public money being spent on it.
Reducing the NHS financial burden will release finance to be used to further reduce the tax ‘burden’ on high earners.
Reducing state money expenditure in England also reduces Barnett formula finance for Scotland – possibly to the point where NHS privatisation becomes the only option.
The Tory government, which is no supporter of devolution and which is working to undermine it wherever possible, is more than happy to see these events unravel.
It needs to be remembered that Westminster retains overall control and won’t hesitate to overrule Holyrood to get what it wants, especially if opening up Scotland’s health services to American healthcare companies assists the process of completing trade deals with the USA.
And what might a privatised Scottish health service in the hands of American healthcare corporations offer? Frightening charges out with the reach of most people judging by this infographic from International Insurance.com
But even if you can afford insurance that doesn’t guarantee your medical bills will be covered.
In this Double Down News video Dr Bob Gill, NHS doctor and filmmaker, gives his views. Prepare to be shocked.
The American healthcare system is ‘totally dysfunctional, endemically fraudulent and hugely expensive” and the UK government is determined to copy it.
Full article:
“https://newsnet.scot/news-analysis/scotlands-nhs-in-imminent-danger”
The Scottish government issued a press release stating that healthcare provision in Scotland will not be subject to profiteering by large private healthcare contractors.
Nov 2021: SNP to pay millions in private health amid fears of “NHS privatisation by stealth”
The SNP government has been accused of putting the public ownership of NHS Scotland at risk by paying millions out to private hospitals in an effort to solve the health crisis it created.
Leaked documents have shown that the SNP plans to pay private health firms up to £150million, bringing into question the commitment to keeping the NHS public.
The Scottish Government’s fund for private health firms has sparked concern that the NHS is at risk of being privatised “by stealth”.
The money is to be spent on the enormous backlog of operations and cancer treatment that are the result of “years of SNP mismanagement and cuts”.
28 Nov 2021: Scots NHS for sale: Firms invited to bid for over 1,500 Scots medical procedures
Private health care hospitals and firms are being invited to bid for the provision of vital medical care including lifesaving surgery normally carried out by the NHS in Scotland, the Herald on Sunday can reveal.
Scottish Government quango NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) has been sanctioned to create a dynamic purchasing system (DPS) for private firms to provide surgery and other medical care across the health care spectrum, raising serious concerns about how safe the NHS is in the hands of the Scottish ministers.
Full article:
caltonjock 
I honestly believe that a MSP/MP including FM/PM shouldn’t be aloud to stand for more than two terms and an election term should be redused from 5yrs to 4yrs.
Mike Russell isn’t even interested in Independence and I’m not suprised at anything the SNP does, I’ll be glad when we are rid of the SNP and there isn’t party who I’d trust to put in there place.
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Operose Health is putting patients at risk by prioritising profit, says a senior GP
The UK’s biggest chain of GP practices lets less qualified staff see patients without adequate supervision, an undercover BBC Panorama investigation has found. The company, with almost 600,000 NHS patients, is owned by US healthcare giant Centene Corporation. Operose says it’s not short-staffed and operates in patients’ best interests.
Full article here: “https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61759643”
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This is the English NHS new way of working
Alternative Providers of Medical Services (APMS)
APMS permits the signing of contracts for primary medical services between NHS Trusts NHS Foundation Trusts, GMS and PMS practices and commercial providers, voluntary sector providers, mutual sector providers, social enterprises and other public service bodies.
Contracting Policy
All new GP contracts are open to bids from the private sector in a move that GP leaders warned marked the ‘death-knell’ of traditional life-long general practice. Practices closed because of competition law have been replaced with time-limited, (usually 5 year) APMS contracts. High street pharmacies are offering a range of services previously the remitted to GP’s. Computerised private patient records are being made available to contractors. GP service provision is being progressively dismantled in favour of large private healthcare providers.
Senior NHS medical staff comments:
GP leaders warned that, increasing workload, financial pressure and strict tender requirements would exclude smaller practices from primary care and drive forward an increase in the number of private providers.
The Medical Director of London wide healthcare providers said they were worried about the moves that would replace family doctors with, “short-term, profit making ventures that went against the ethos of primary care”. Adding: “APMS is only for five years, potentially renewable, which means that you cannot invest time, you can’t invest in the long term. It’s designed for people to go in, to make a profit, and to go out again. Which is not, in my opinion, what general practice is about. What it means is, over a reasonably short period of time you are going to have significant proportions of general practice services in London, being run by the commercials or big conglomerates.”
A GP contract lead at the NHS Alliance warned that the move would mean that independent GPs would struggle to compete with larger healthcare corporations. He said, “Often minimum requirements of IT, quality, financial backing, in practice can make it difficult for small providers to effectively compete. It can be a very inefficient way of procuring a service of limited value. There is also the danger of providers bidding low to win the contract and then being unable to meet the terms of it.”
A BMA Council member said, “I’m worried about that becoming the new model of care, we’ve already seen new models of private companies bidding for these APMS contracts, some of them have been successful and it’s hard for ordinary practices to bid against them.” Adding, “It’s very much part of a trend, it’s part of this big push to privatise, to commercialise and bring in private, for profit companies to run more and more, not just primary care, but community and secondary hospital care.”
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Aye CJ, this goes beyond disturbing. In the light of and regardless of Sturgeons latest pronouncement on carrot propagation this subject must be tackled head on by all who seek to protect the continuing state provision of health and welfare services in an Independent Scotland.
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This transition is all about freedom. Freedom to buy as much healthcare one desire.
A bit like the privatised gas and electricity utilities where folks are free to select and buy as much heating and lighting as they need..
I mean corporate profit is good. It delivers great returns for the offshore money men who in turn have the consumers best interests at heart.
And that is why the consumers the length and breadth of Scotland are so supportive of privatition. They know the benefits of a private healthcare system.?
And so do the SNP as the party president Michael Russel sets out.
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And meanwhile as the SG and Westminster progress the transition we are being told to prepare for war.
Reading a carefully crafted statement over the weekend released by the new head of the army Sir Patrick Sanders said –
British troops must prepare “to fight in Europe once again” as the war in Ukraine continues”
Writing to his charges he warned of the challenges they face saying ”
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underlines our core purpose to protect the UK by being ready to fight and win wars on land,”
With over 50, 000 Ukrainian and 30,000 Russian troops reported killed the slide to privatised healthcare fits in very well with the desire to go to war with Russia. A big big country Russia with huge natural resources what not to like about a war.
Dulce et decorum est in pro patria mori!
And thankfully wee Nicola is up for it. She after all was arguing to deploy fighter jets weeks and weeks ago.
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