I am not a doctor, hell, I am not even smart enough to play one on TV, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once. Apparently, that makes me qualified to play doctor to my own health needs under the National Health Service (NHS) in Britain.The British government has come up with a brilliant plan to save a whole lot of money in the NHS budget. If you have a health problem, just take care of it yourself!That is right, No consulting a doctor or going to a hospital, instead patients in Britain’s socialized, national run healthcare system will be encouraged to carry out “self-care.” Oh, but not to worry…this is just until they can figure out a way to curb the spending.
It’s really all right; the NHS is just trying to get rid of those not so important trips to the doctor and emergency room. You know, like people dealing with arthritis, asthma and heart failure! Yeah, it says heart failure. These types of patience will be treating themselves with self-care.
Some of the self-care patients will have to apply includes using equipment placed in the home to monitor heart activity, blood pressure and lung capacity and then relay that information to doctors by phone or computer link. Patience will also administer their own drugs and other treatments to manage pain.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown claims this is an improvement that will allow patients to “play a far more active role in managing their own condition.” How about allowing patients to take a far more active roll of their healthcare by privatizing the system and letting market forces determine where people can get the best care for the best price. Now that is what I call self-care.
Oh yeah, The British Department of Health calls their situation an “exciting opportunity.”I wonder how the citizens of Great Britain feel about their “exciting opportunity” to be forced into a broken universal health care system and told you’re on your own.
Just the thought of government controlled universal healthcare gives me a headache…
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