Further updates of figures that appear in The Welfare State We're In:
Despite all the NHS propaganda, Britain continues to lag far behind on many measures of medical performance and facilities. This certain applied to access to CT scanners. We have less than half the scanners of Germany, per million of population, and a third of the number in Switzerland.
Here is the latest league table of major countries:
Japan 84
Italy 24
Switzerland 18
Germany 14.7
United States 13.1
Canada 10.3
France 8.4
United Kingdom 5.8
With MRI scanners, Britain is, for once, ahead of France in a measurement of medical care and facilities. But the NHS is still far below the international average. Taking 13 advanced countries, the average is 9.6, or 7.6 if you exclude Japan as anomalous. Britain has 5.2. Even excluding Japan, other comparable countries generally have 46 per cent more MRI scanners than we do.
Here are some links to the statistics I have used which are from the OECD Health Data 2005:
Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in NHS
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This is what happens when you pump vast sums of money into the pubic sector. I can assure you shortages of key machines/staff/components occur throughout the public sector. I work (temporarily) for a quango in the employment and advice sector, and we regularly find ourselves in the situation of not being able to do our jobs for the most ridiculous of reasons. Last week, we were unable to use IT on a training course for a project with a value of £200k. The reason: we needed a USB pendrive (£20), and because it wasn’t in the budget, we weren’t getting it!
Posted by: Alec Hodgson at December 5, 2005 01:09 PM
So, despite massive injections of money: we're still left with a sorry excuse for a health service. The news that NHS trusts in deficit are now opting to delay surgery/procedures as long as possible to try and save money is disgusting... though not surprising. It is yet one more sign that New Labour's approach to the role of government and the welfare state is totally wrong-headed.
Posted by: Rory at December 6, 2005 12:27 AM
No, James there are not enough scanners but, to compound the problem, the scanners there are, are under utilised. There are sufficient Consultant Radiologists (just) to read the scans, but not enough radiographers to keep the scanners scanning round the clock. And so a lot of the work is being farmed out to the private sector comapnies, one prominent one of which has a leading New Labour Family-Man as a director/advisor.
What is going on?
Posted by: Dr Crippen at December 7, 2005 02:29 PM
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Even when we have the machines we don't have the staff.
Last year my father was an emergency admission to hospital for a heart problem. The hospital did not have staff for its CT scanner, which apparently often lies unused, and had to borrow a team from elsewhere, which to its credit it did.
For my father this has been the high point of his treatment: the rest has been characterised by neglect, poor communication, delay, and incompetence.
Posted by: Tim at December 5, 2005 11:47 AM