A shocking report by the research group "Breakthrough Breast Cancer" reveals that as many as a third of GP's are failing to refer patients with suspected breast cancer as urgent cases. Which is one of the core reasons why Britain lags behind most of Europe in terms of cancer deaths. Even behind many poorer eastern european countries that spend less than 1/3rd the amount the UK spends on the National health Service.GP's failure to properly understand the procedures for urgent referral of suspected breast cancer cases costs thousands of lives every year.

The Labour government made the National Health Service (NHS) its number one priority by tripling the NHS annual budget, but with to date little evidence of anywhere near similar output increases. As an example GP's were given liberal and lucrative rises of a tripling in GP surgery budgets with the aim of improving the patient healthcare. But instead of focusing on improving patient care, GP's took the opportunity to take advantage of poorly worded contracts to in result in a tripling or more of salaries, as GP's rewarded themselves 30% plus annual pay hikes over several years, whilst patients experienced a drop in quality of service as many GP's became in effect part-time doctors.

The consequences of incompetent GP practices has been for many thousands of patients dieing whilst GP's ignored or disregarded patient symptoms with dismissive or worthless diagnoses. For instance there are cases of patients suffering with breast cancer, repeatedly ms-diagnosed as having nothing more than environmental flu, when the in fact patients cancer had progressed leaving the patients in a terminal state with barely weeks left to live.

NHS hospitals are not proving to be much better, with barely operable medical computer record systems resulting in further patient delays. Not to mention the thousands that die due to criminal negligence in most basic of hygiene which results in many patients now opting to pay for surgery abroad rather than risk an lethal NHS hospital infection.

Recent arrivals from Poland, appalled at the poor quality of the health service are increasingly likely to fly back to Poland for healthcare than be put on a lengthy waiting list that can and does make the difference between life and death.

The negligence observed in the NHS is symptom of the arrogance that is ingrained in a service which is free at the point of delivery. Free and in many, many cases Worthless. The only interest the NHS seems to increasingly serve is in sustaining the employment of those on the NHS gravy train with patients seen as an inconvenience to ignore as long as possible without any real interest in performing proper diagnoses or treatment.

The best way to deal with the lack of competency is to introduce market forces into GP practices by privitising GP services, in addition to this there must be some monetary cost associated with diagnoses, therefore all patients should pay a nominal fee for diagnoses, similar to the payment system for prescriptions. I.e. a flat fee of £6 would make the GP's take more notice of patients, and patients more eager to get value for money from their GP instead of accepting poor quality of service due to the fact that the service is 100% free at the point of delivery. Privitisation would also allow for competition where patients could go to supermarket surgeries for more competent diagnoses rather than waste critical time with their current GP surgery.

By Nadeem Walayat

Nadeem Walayat has over 20 years experience of trading, analysing and forecasting the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. We present in-depth analysis from over 100 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets. Thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities.

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