BMA: 'Let Doctors Run NHS'

Doctors should have a bigger say than politicians in how the NHS is run, according to a poll.

The survey for the British Medical Association says two thirds of Scots thought the NHS should be free manage itself without interference.

It also shows 74 percent of Scots believe politicians create health policies to win votes, not to do what's best for the service.

More than half of people in Scotland were satisfied with how the NHS is run, a figure similar to that in the rest of the UK, while almost two thirds of Scots are in favour of doctors having a greater say in how the health service is run.  

Two thirds of people thought that the NHS should be free to manage itself without interference and 41% said that parliaments should not have a role in setting overall targets.

Dr Brian Keighley, Chairman of the BMA in Scotland, said thjat despite different approaches to health policy compared to down South, the results are broadly the same.

He said:

"In Scotland, we have not endured the massive reorganisation of the NHS that has happened in England, but political agendas here have stifled change and, in my view, placed the NHS, as it is currently run, in an unsustainable position.

“This survey shows that the public is increasingly disenchanted with the use of the NHS as a political football by all political parties in Scotland.

“Whilst the NHS remains high in public estimation, there is a significant majority of the population showing increasing impatience with decisions made with reference to opinion polls and potential votes rather than on grounds of clinical need.

“The public is not naive and is clearly suspicious of political interference in the NHS. They need to be convinced that decisions about their local health services are primarily about improving the care that they receive.  Doctors and NHS managers are clear that there are problems in the NHS, yet politicians on all sides of the Parliament are unwilling to make difficult choices for fear of losing votes. 

“The NHS in Scotland needs to be protected from day-to-day political control and managed so that planning of services and investment is on a far longer timescale than that of local or general elections.  Yes, politicians should be accountable for the running of the NHS, but when it comes to decisions on patient care it is time to allow doctors to be the professionals, leaders and innovators that they have proved time and again they can be.”

“The challenge for all politicians is to put patients, not votes at the heart of their health policy.”