THE NHS NEEDS TO BE REPLACED, SAYS REES-MOGG

Jacob Rees-Mogg has said the current NHS model has failed and needs to be replaced with a service which isn’t solely funded through taxation.
Speaking on GB News, Jacob Rees-Mogg said:
“The Conservative Party proved one thing in the last 14 years it is that pouring money into the NHS simply does not work. Cash goes in but productivity stagnates or even falls.
“The NHS, the sixth largest employer in the world, has become the ultimate money guzzler with its annual budget now approaching £200 billion.
“Whenever the Conservatives are in office, Labour complains that the NHS is being starved of funds. That, according to them, explains its problems.
Yet even in the era of austerity under Cameron and Osborne, the NHS was protected, and subsequently it has been flooded with your taxpayer cash.
“In the final parliament of Conservative rule, funding increased massively. Since 2018 roughly an extra £1 billion per week has been injected in the health system, notably more than the infamous suggestion of £350 million a week on the Brexit bus.
“But outcomes are deeply unsatisfactory today. However, the Institute for Economic Affairs has issued its latest report, which has made the case for the complete abolition of the NHS as we know it, to move towards an insurance based system.
“For too long, the NHS true believers have fooled the public into thinking there are two kinds of system: the British in which everything is paid for and provided by the state or the American in which the cost of private insurance is unaffordable for many.
“But there are other countries and other models besides the US and the UK, and this new IEA report sets this out clearly.
“A number of European countries such as the Netherlands or the Czech Republic use social health insurance systems, which are market based and competitive, and they seem to outperform the NHS.
“Part of the problem is that the NHS is structured for the convenience of its own staff, not for patients. A recent Policy Exchange report found more than four in five hospital trusts have not fired a manager in the last year for poor performance or misconduct.
“While the shocking cover ups when things go wrong, especially in maternity services, are proof that the insiders’ interests come first.
“The competitive system would be forced to address issues such as these, which, with some element of co-payment could help, as it would put patients in the driving seat.
“Everyone agrees that an overhaul of the system is needed, be it the report of Lord Darzi, commissioned by Wes Streeting or the IEA.
“Unfortunately, Streeting is offering more of the same, while the socialist principle of a national service, centrally controlled, has failed.
“It needs to be replaced with a more responsive system with a variety of income streams.
“We must move past the age of wastefulness and frugality, past bureaucracy to efficiency in past sentimentality to honesty.”