Thread by @danielgoyal

There are some misconceptions about private healthcare versus the NHS.

It is not a choice between reduced waiting times and better rooms.

1. A major change is motives. What is the motive of your doctor or service provider when offering tests or treatments?

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2. Where patients are seen as profit-making opportunities, the treatments offered changes. Now, NHS treatments are offered based on efficacy: does the treatment actually benefit the patient? Privatisation means corporations decide whether you treatments should be offered.

Both must consider money, but the outcome of the public service is how much bang for the buck…how much extra, good quality life can we get out of this treatment. It’s all about health and the patients life.

Insurance companies ask different questions. How can we make a profit out of this illness? How much do we have to provide to get the person to buy the policy? To provide more expensive policies they must withhold some treatment options from standard policies.

I do not think private healthcare is bad. There is a role for it. The choice should exist. But they must play by our rules; they must abide by standards that put patients first.

And, let us not forget, Public Healthcare Service will always exist. There just isn’t enough profit in acute care. And no private hospital is self-reliant. If things go seriously wrong, you will be referred to the NHS. We all depend on the public healthcare service.