PFI German vices locally is underlined by referred by her GP. beds at Worcester in advance of the opening of the Pri-tunded Roydi Campaigners have warned that Worcestershire Health Authority would not be able many beds as they intended. once the new hospital is complete. THE NHS may be frantically importing doctors and nursing stall from any where it can find a pool of qualified English-speaking recruits: but Health Secretary Alan Milbur has now given the nod to the export of patients for treatment in under-used hospitals in Te first patient to take advantage of this new relaxation of NHS rules and receive a knee replacement in a hospital is a 60-year old woman from Wiltshire, who had been waiting 22 months since she was first Jackie Whatley and her husband will have to fork out for air fares and accommodation in Germany.
But the logic of Milbur's NHS paying out £6,000 to finance the operation in Rodbalen, near the French border, rather than ensuring that British hospi tals have the resources to cope with PCTs have now been empowered to NHS 2000 NATIONAL PLAN One cital missing ingredient: beds buy treatments from European hospi. tals, ranging from one-off operations for people waiting more than the maxi. mum 18 months to batches of operabons such as cataract an hip ropoco The policy appears to flow more from the goverment's defeat in the European Court, and its fixation with increasing links with the private sector, than any serious attempt to plug gaps in local services. No extra cash is being, provided to pay tor overseas cautione And the new arrangement is thought to be most attractive to patients from the south east corner of enoland where they may actually be closer to a French hospital than one in the NHS. Why Germany has beds to spare The estimated 20% surplus bed capacity in German hospitals, which has led to German firms touting across Europe gives the lie to the hoary old notion that demand for health care is infi. nite". scme kind of "bottomless de According to advocates of this policy (who normally then proceed to argue pay for their health care or take out private insurance) no sooner does a new service come on stream or a bed open than a queue of patients forms waiting to use it.
But it is clear that not only has Germany's expensive health care system met demand within Germany, it has exceeded it! According to the latest available figures. Germany spent over 10 percent of its Gross Comestic Product on health care in 1998, the highest share of GDP in Europe. Of this almost 80% was public spending, with the remainder made up by private treatment. By contrast the UK spent less than 7 percent, lower than almost every other European country.
OECD figures also show that the UK had fewer acute hospital beds per head of population than any OECD country other than Turkey, and one of the lowest proportions of practising nurses per head, while only Mexico.
Korea and Turkey had fewer practising physicians.
Scots to stay nearer home A very different line has been taken by Mr Mithum's Scottish counterpart, Susan Deacon.
-Why send a person from Falkirk to Frankfurt when perhaps he could be treated in Fife?" she asked, pointing out it would be easier to cross to a dirferent Health Board than to cross the channel looking for treatment.
The Scottish NHS is to simplity the process of paying for patients to be treated, in hospitals outside their area of residence.