At least, that was the theory. Now, most surveys of the NHS budget are saying that it's going to or will have a £2.3 billion deficit by the end of March 2016. £1.8 billion deficit would be a fantastic equivalent.
And so, I can't help wondering if there's something the government could do to try and fix this. Granted, my first idea will probably never, EVER get put into effect, if only because the NHS is the favourite political football of the moment, but here are some general ideas.
1) Take the NHS out of Government control
That's damn right. Give control of the procedures, the rules, the pricing of everything, even the targets, over to either the General Medical Council, or a totally new group dedicated to running the NHS with AS LITTLE, IF NO government interference.
In an ideal situation, the Government of the day would simply say "Here's your budget for the next 5, 10, 20 years; it'll go up by X no matter what, get on with it.
2) Get the NHS to help fund itself.
This one I can't really help blaming Tony Blair for, and is kind of connected to the next one. With tons of money lying around, he decided to try for instant solutions, without trying to make those solutions last.
At the moment, the NHS is free at the point of delivery, including GPs and walk in centres. This needs to stop. People walk in with a stubbed toe convinced by Google that it's cancer, and they're doing this free from a nannying healthcare system.
Not to say look at France, but... look at France! They have a good system where Joe Bloggs will go to his GP, pay roughly 23€ to get looked at and then, if he can't afford to let the fee slide, he fills out a form and sends it back to claim his money back.
That should be implemented in the NHS. Regular GP appointments should cost between £15 and £18 (the equivalent of 23€, anyway). If you miss your appointment without having called to explain or reschedule it, a fine of £10 should apply. If you can't afford to lose that kind of money, fill out the form and claim it back.
Any "non-essential" operations like boob reductions, or cosmetic surgeries of any sort should never be "on the NHS" UNLESS it is medically necessary i.e. operate or he dies, and only if the patient can prove he cannot afford the costs.
3) Set REASONABLE targets
Again, Tony Blair went totally wrong here, because while he got waiting times down, he didn't try to keep them down. That wasn't reasonable purely because of financial issues - mostly because of his assumption that the money would be there forever and ever and ever.
That being said, you can't expect instant solutions from the NHS. Part of the reason that it's floundering right now is that the government of the day can't make its mind up on targets, and yet always demands instant results.
We're talking about a business that spans 4 countries! That's the mother of all supertankers, and it ain't changing direction every time a slick politico snaps his fingers.
Look at the Titanic. It only hit the iceberg because of a lack of enough time to manoeuvre, and the inability to change direction quickly. Treat the NHS like the Titanic, and give it a goal to reach 3, 4, 5 years down the line, instead of right now with tea and a biscuit!
But none of this will ever happen, most likely. Because every government needs its political football or two. Here in the UK, they happen to be Trident and the NHS. And the NHS and the people it is trying to serve will be the ones to suffer for it.
