According to the chairman of the BMA, the NHS “is not a toy“.

Dr Hamish Meldrum urged Andy Burnham, the new Health Secretary, against any part privatisation of the health service, exhorting him to look after the organisation, end the internal market where doctors and hospitals compete for patients and to ditch the use of management consultants and private finance initiatives…

Dr Meldrum told the BMA annual representatives meeting in Liverpool that a target-driven culture has ‘infested’ the NHS, leading to financial outcomes for trusts being put ahead of clinical outcomes for patients. (The Telegraph)

Ending the excessive number of targets in the NHS is something that needs to happen to allow the health service to do its actual job. But the rest of Meldrum’s points is a load of rubbish.

We should have an internal market in the NHS, no, we need an internal market in the NHS. That is the only way that we can get an efficient health service – one that is focused on value for money. We pay a lot for the NHS and the least we should be able to expect is value for money!

Management consultants have their place, when used sparingly and when listened to. The problem is that they are over-used. And private finance initiatives? They bring private money into the public health system and make it more efficient – because it needs to be efficient to make money – the private system can, after all, perform the same operation for less!

The BMA are right that the NHS isn’t a toy. But neither is it their own private playground. They cannot just go on spending without looking at the value for money we get from it. Just because they want to be able to not consider the costs doesn’t mean they shouldn’t. It’s not good enough for doctor’s to say “we don’t want to worry about costs” any more.

The NHS is more than expensive enough as it is. It’s time to make economies and to be aware of the costs. If the private sector can make money from carrying out NHS operations at NHS costs, it shows that the NHS certainly is not efficient.

The BMA need to be prepared to learn from the private healthcare system. The NHS is no more their toy than it is politicians’.