The NHS attracts "extremely poor calibre management who refuse to make decisions and take risks," says Daniel Kawczynski
Former Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski speaks on the outdated model of the NHS created in a "post war Socialist utopia"
Again we hear that despite receiving record investment, the NHS is failing patients and waiting times are getting worse.
How many times have we heard this and governments of all colours have thrown extra money but not introduced the competition so desperately needed to challenge the NHS and its monstrous inefficiency?
Politicians always get the blame for the poor service but in reality, the fault lies not with them nor the hard-working NHS staff. No, it lies with the model itself created in a post-war Socialist utopia which has not withstood the test of time.
Until we have a Secretary of State prepared to challenge this model we will continue to face deteriorating services whilst pouring even more money into papering over the cracks.
During the 19 years that I represented my constituency in the Commons, nothing concerned me more than the management of my local hospital trust. I experienced six Chief Executives none of whom delivered what was required for local patients.
Seven years ago the MP for Ludlow and I secured over £312million for a major modernisation and reconfiguration of the Trust which was based on plans devised by 300 local doctors, surgeons and clinicians who are at the coalface of providing services as they deemed these changes to be essential for patient safety.
Now, more than seven years on, construction has only just started and the project has been mired in delays and setbacks year after year.
The NHS receives more in funding every year than most countries around the world have to pay for everything within their jurisdictions.
Just last year alone over £190billion of taxpayers' money was poured into this organisation and it still continues to flounder.
During the pandemic, I saw how a private hospital in my constituency, the Nuffield Hospital saved the state-run Royal Shrewsbury Hospital by taking patients at cost price to alleviate the unprecedented pressures.
This gave me the idea that we must now finally, after eight decades of the state-run health monopoly, challenge the socialist state-run concept of how healthcare is provided.
The NHS is probably one of the most inefficient organisations in Britain, attracting extremely poor calibre management who refuse to make decisions and take risks.
The culture within the NHS allows managers off the hook without being held to account for massive delays and poor management. Managers feel protected within the monolithic structures of this vast unaccountable organisation.
As the only former Conservative MP to have been born in a Communist country, I know what happens when within a society no competition is tolerated and you have a state-run system managed by poor calibre risk-averse bureaucrats rather than the aspiring dynamism of young entrepreneurs and innovators wishing to create excellence rather than managing decline.
LATEST OPINION:
We need to create the right taxation and regulatory framework to ensure we secure massive investment from the private sector into the construction and management of hospitals both British and from overseas.
The State should trust the aspiration and vision of the private sector to provide the facilities necessary and then pay the private sector directly for the care of patients using these facilities.
The Socialist model of state-run monopoly has proved to be not only out of date but bankrupt as a concept leading to inefficiency waste and corruption. I sincerely hope that Wes Streeting who has spoken about the need to involve the private sector finally has the courage to incentivise the private sector to invest in the British healthcare industry to the degree that we failed to do when in office.
To those in society who continue to denigrate the private sector, may I repeat the message given by Sir Alan Bates who has found great respect from across our nation by exposing the inefficiency of the Post Office towards the Horizon fiasco.
He said the Post Office ought to be sold to Amazon for £1. He understands that state-run entities are ineffectual and poor value and he understands the massively disproportionate achievements of private sector companies like Amazon across the world in comparison to Royal Mail.
