NHS Hospitals to open abroad

[Less]

BBC News - Today - Global expansion 'real opportunity' for NHS
Is this really the way to go? sending badly needed Doctors and Nurses abroad?

Wouldn't the money be better invested if companies making medical equipment were formed?

This would help relieve the numbers of workers left idle in depressed areas and would be a better boost to exports than losing NHS staff that are so badly needed here.

[Houseboy]

Agree totally. Why spread a thin resource even thinner.

[cashman]

It is the way to go,when yeh take into account,its probably all about backhanders.

[Houseboy]

There is an argument to say that if they make money it will subsidise our hospitals here, I believe that is the case that is being put forward and a valid point, but the question is will they make a profit. Apparently, according to the radio this morning there is an "NHS" hospital in Saudi and has been for a liitle while but it has yet to show anything like a profit at all.
I suppose it will happen and then we can only wait and see.

[mobertol]

I can't help feeling there's something fundamentally wrong with wanting to make money out of people's suffering either home or abroad. This is well away from the ethos of the NHS surely. It was never set up to be a profit machine but to provide essential care and services...

[susie123]

Originally Posted by Less

BBC News - Today - Global expansion 'real opportunity' for NHS
Is this really the way to go? sending badly needed Doctors and Nurses abroad?

Wouldn't the money be better invested if companies making medical equipment were formed?

This would help relieve the numbers of workers left idle in depressed areas and would be a better boost to exports than losing NHS staff that are so badly needed here.

Not sure it's as easy as we might imagine to set up a medical equipment company - there are a lot of hoops to be jumped through...

How we regulate devices : MHRA

Also, would staff from this country be sent abroad to run these hospitals? I would have thought staff shortages here are down to a lack of resources rather than a lack of personnel, which might be addressed if money from the foreign ventures were ploughed back in this country.

BBC News - NHS hospital trusts invited to expand abroad

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...mployment.html

[Margaret Pilkington]

from what I have read, it seems that the NHS wants to export the expertise that is found in some centres of excellence(the Royal Marsden, and GOSH being two quoted).....I can't see how this is possible, without taking those with the expertise out of the services in this country.

The NHS would be far better at concentrating on getting the money for treatment from those who should be paying for it, because they are not eligible for free treatment.
Or running private services in NHS sites(I shudder at this thought, because I hate private care) at least if this option were employed the medical specialists would be here in this country rather than in China or Saudi.

[Less]

Originally Posted by susie123

Not sure it's as easy as we might imagine to set up a medical equipment company - there are a lot of hoops to be jumped through...

How we regulate devices : MHRA

Also, would staff from this country be sent abroad to run these hospitals? I would have thought staff shortages here are down to a lack of resources rather than a lack of personnel, which might be addressed if money from the foreign ventures were ploughed back in this country.

BBC News - NHS hospital trusts invited to expand abroad

New doctors 'will face unemployment' - Telegraph

I totaly agree, very difficult, the hoops must be immense, how much more immense must the hoops be to supply care for actual patients, no matter where they are?

[susie123]

Originally Posted by Less

I totaly agree, very difficult, the hoops must be immense, how much more immense must the hoops be to supply care for actual patients, no matter where they are?

Less, going on what you said in your first post, are you saying that there is a shortage of medical equipment that needs to be addressed?

All I meant by my comment was that you can't just set up a medical device company overnight, there have to be tests, trials etc and even with a standout product there are failures to bring to market. I learned this the hard way having invested in one or two of these companies over the years.

[Less]

Originally Posted by susie123

Less, going on what you said in your first post, are you saying that there is a shortage of medical equipment that needs to be addressed?

All I meant by my comment was that you can't just set up a medical device company overnight, there have to be tests, trials etc and even with a standout product there are failures to bring to market. I learned this the hard way having invested in one or two of these companies over the years.

All I meant was, if Doctors need training let their Country send them over here and pay for it, surely then there would be a greater need for equipment that we could supply? You mention setting things up over night? A Worldwide NHS can't be set up overnight either? Or do you know different?
Set up training for foreign Doctors here, set up Companies manufacturing the equipment they train on, (better chance of them recommending equipment their used to), more employed, more contributing to society, more funds can be invested in training our own and other Countries Nurses and Doctor's, must be better than just sending needed staff abroad? After all whilst they are training in this Country, they are working on our people that are ill, so we the ordinary folk might just win for a change.

[susie123]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

from what I have read, it seems that the NHS wants to export the expertise that is found in some centres of excellence(the Royal Marsden, and GOSH being two quoted).....I can't see how this is possible, without taking those with the expertise out of the services in this country.

The NHS would be far better at concentrating on getting the money for treatment from those who should be paying for it, because they are not eligible for free treatment.
Or running private services in NHS sites(I shudder at this thought, because I hate private care) at least if this option were employed the medical specialists would be here in this country rather than in China or Saudi.

Margaret have you any idea (I ask, because I have no idea) how much the NHS would get from people who are not eligible for free treatment? And who are these people and why, if they are supposed to pay, has the NHS not obtained the money?

It seems that these hospitals which might be established abroad would be funded from private healthcare revenue at the UK parent hospital. As senior doctors routinely seem to do at least some private practice I can't see that it would be any different if they did that abroad rather than here.

I looked at the Moorfields Dubai website and it says that many of their staff trained at Moorfields UK - surely it would not be possible for all graduates to find posts there so there has to be some scope for some of them moving overseas, possibly back to their home countries?

[Margaret Pilkington]

I can't supply exact figures...but I know it would be a lot of money.
I don't even know what the procedure is now for winkling out those that should pay....but in my day anyone who had not been resident in the UK for more than 12months was supposed to pay for their treatment....unless they had the e111(european exemption).
Many folk from the indian sub continent would come and have their treatment here, then buzz off back from whence they came.
Once they were gone that was it...even if they had been identified as having to pay for treatment.

As for Doctors doing private practice......yes, they do...but usually at what was Our Lady of Compassion or Gisburn Park....so if one of their patients had a problem they could hurry back and sort it. Would be a different ball game if the consultant were doing private work in China...or even Dubai. then there is the thorny problem of them being suitable to practice once they had just flown in from where ever it was they had been.......a flight delay or a diverted flight could play havoc with a Monday morning NHS theatre list....would you like to be operated on if the consultant had not set eyes on you since you were seen in out patients and referred for surgery?
(Most of the consultants I worked with, would come and see their patients prior to surgery)
I cannot see how this is going to benefit the NHS in any way shape or form.......I can only see it making life much more fraught with problems(unsafe even) for both the staff and the patients.