This all sounds good and all but the majority of these schemes look like they will need significant upfront investment at a time when Keir Starmer has already said he will not increase public health spending.
Take the idea of community diagnostic centres in shopping centres around the country. I am all for this but how is it going to be funded? Which other bit of the health budget is going to be cut to accommodate it?
I mean cost of a new CT or MRI scanner is £200k+ and can reach £1-2 million for a top of the range machine.
Ultrasound scanners are cheaper maybe £15-25k for a hospital quality machine and x-ray machines are probably similar.
On top of this you have to pay ongoing costs of employing radiographers and sonographers to actually do the scans and then the radiologists on top to report and review the scans. Needless to say there is a huge shortage of these workers in the UK.
Surgical hubs is a similar issue, these will be expensive to setup and staff where does the money come from? My worry is that this will be put out to tender and you will have more privatisation of the NHS.
We have social prescribers where I work and they’re fantastic the main issue I have with them is they are overwhelmed due to the demand meaning in my area they haven’t accepted new referrals for the last 6 months. Again this could be fixed by employing more of them but how is this funded if there will be no new investment.
cozyHousecatWasTaken on
All of those attract private investment down the chain which is why they can be good ideas.
2 Comments
This all sounds good and all but the majority of these schemes look like they will need significant upfront investment at a time when Keir Starmer has already said he will not increase public health spending.
Take the idea of community diagnostic centres in shopping centres around the country. I am all for this but how is it going to be funded? Which other bit of the health budget is going to be cut to accommodate it?
I mean cost of a new CT or MRI scanner is £200k+ and can reach £1-2 million for a top of the range machine.
Ultrasound scanners are cheaper maybe £15-25k for a hospital quality machine and x-ray machines are probably similar.
On top of this you have to pay ongoing costs of employing radiographers and sonographers to actually do the scans and then the radiologists on top to report and review the scans. Needless to say there is a huge shortage of these workers in the UK.
Surgical hubs is a similar issue, these will be expensive to setup and staff where does the money come from? My worry is that this will be put out to tender and you will have more privatisation of the NHS.
We have social prescribers where I work and they’re fantastic the main issue I have with them is they are overwhelmed due to the demand meaning in my area they haven’t accepted new referrals for the last 6 months. Again this could be fixed by employing more of them but how is this funded if there will be no new investment.
All of those attract private investment down the chain which is why they can be good ideas.