In theory, it’s perfectly possible for one person to buy the entire NHS if rich enough.
I suppose HM The Queen could buy the NHS in theory.
Noel Edmonds suddenly popped up in a most unusual interview with Jeremy Paxman last night. He was talking about his ideas to buy the BBC.
In a way, the BBC, despite its fiascos such as the Jimmy Savile Scandal, is a ‘national treasure’. Likewise, the National Health Service is considered to be outstanding, by some, despite noteworthy scandals such as what was happening at Mid Staffs a few years ago.
Edmonds’ language that the BBC is ‘sleepwalking to destruction‘ is reminiscent of Isabel Oakeshott’s complaints about the NHS being ‘unsustainable’ last week.
In a tirade against the NHS, Oakeshott launched an eyewatering gobbledegook compilation of corporate memes on last week’s Question Time, which was as intellectually coherent as a typical response on the Jeremy Kyle show.
Edmonds refuses point blank to say who his ‘like-minded’ allies might be, reminiscent of the corporate veil so readily utilised by private companies utilised in areas of public interest.
The refusal of Jeremy Hunt in legislating for parity in transparency requirements through freedom of information legislation, in comparison to the alacrity with which the Coalition government has legislated on parity of providers in a health ‘market’, has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime.
It also threatens patient safety.
Curiously, as one of Edmonds’ justifications for taking over the BBC, Edmonds cited it would protect some channels from being shelved, and it could likewise get rid of BBC dead-wood.
Nobody in the private sector has ever justified taking over services in the NHS on the grounds that they would be cut in the NHS. That’s because the private sector are interested, whether they concede to it or not, in cherry picking – high volume low cost products and services.
In this conceptualisation, ‘Mr Blobby’ is the TV equivalent of a hernia operation.
One can only wonder how comprehensive Edmonds’ TV output would be: whether it might be more profitable to make lots of Top Gears than ‘Book of the Week’.
And it’s likely that Edmonds’ team will lead on strategic exports, to help with profits. The NHS has yet to identify what its principal export is likely to be.
But Douglas Alexander MP, on the same Question Time, is right.
For whatever reason, successive Conservative governments have emphasised how unaffordable the NHS is. As somebody in the Question Time studio audience rightly pointed out, is it the case that the NHS is unaffordable or unfunded properly?
The NHS is funded out of general taxation currently, and to all intents and purposes many argue that the TV licence is a form of indirect taxation. But they are clearly different funding strategies.
Edmonds admitted, “Oh God No! I hope the BBC’s Charter isn’t renewed.”
Likewise, many have asked for the sacred cow for the NHS to be sacrified.
But – “The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it”
