Free healthcare ‘a political mirage’

An independent non-party pressure group has described the belief that healthcare is free at the point of delivery on the NHS in the UK as a “political mirage”.

Doctors for Reform has published a report investigating the use of private payments to “top up” care on the health services and has urged all major political parties, the British Medical Association and Royal Colleges to connect with the debate regarding NHS funding.

The report states that such supplementary private payments are occurring in major areas of care, with their cause being limits on NHS quality, limits on availability depending on location and a lowering in the cost of private healthcare in some areas.

Karol Sikora, professor of Cancer Medicine, said: “The current debate on healthcare is strikingly inadequate. Having to top up NHS care is a reality for many patients.”

She added that despite these facts, current debate on health service funding wrongly accepts the “mirage” of NHS being totally free at the point of delivery. Ms Sikora called for a rejection of this illusion and the comprehensive debate regarding the issue.

Doctors for Reform was launched by 500 senior NHS physicians in February 2004 with the stated aim of encouraging a nationwide debate on reform of the health service.