Key Labour health adviser to Wes Streeting, Paul Corrigan, has claimed that the NHS can no longer be run as a “nationalised industry” as people should increasingly look after themselves at home.
Labour: ‘all medical knowledge’ in a smartphone
Paul Corrigan said the plan to make the NHS digital involved the ‘self-care’ Labour trumpeted at a seminar during its conference. He told the Institute for Government event on NHS reform that the “public will be much more involved in their self-management because the knowledge they have in their hands — [includes] all the medical knowledge in the world”, referring to smartphones.
Corrigan was special adviser to former health secretary Alan Milburn, who rolled out the disastrous private finance initiative (PFI) scams under Tony Blair. Milburn is now lead non-executive director at the department of health under current secretary Wes Streeting.
Both Corrigan and Milburn have advocated for more private provision of NHS services. Corrigan used the tired excuse that ideologically starving the NHS of funding is an argument for privatisation. That’s despite profit extraction from private firms costing the NHS £10m a week.
The lack of funding in the UK can be demonstrated through comparison. France spends £40bn (or 21%) more annually on public healthcare than the UK. This takes into account population size. It has a lower GDP per person.
Nonetheless, Paul Corrigan claimed in July that more NHS funding is “not feasible”.
Additionally, research from IPPR found that addressing NHS waiting lists would unlock £73bn in economic benefits over four years through cultivating a healthy workforce. It’s not solely a moral consideration.
At the NHS reform event, Corrigan also said:
The amount of care that is going to be necessary in the next 10 to 15 years with an ageing and sicker population will overwhelm the current model of the National Health Service — not might do, will
Paul Corrigan believes the NHS should have financial incentives to keep patients at home. This includes paying GPs to stop patients entering hospital.
A seminar at Labour conference in September chimes with Corrigan’s approach. The governing party held a discussion entitled “How to Save 25 million GP Appointments: The role of self-care in delivering an NHS fit for the future”.
It’s worth pointing out that it’s certainly possible that we can save doctors time through advances in technology in the future. But claiming there’s no money for the NHS and seeking for ‘self-care’ to replace it is a toxic combination.
Featured image via Institute for Government – YouTube and the Canary
