The NHS is on the verge of collapse with paperwork and red tape piling up, leaving doctors and nurses less time to care for patients. Bureaucracy has existed since the establishment of the NHS in 1948 and attempts to reform this have gone in vain. The NHS promises to provide up to date services yet this is not always seen. In this essay, I will illustrate Friedrich von Hayek’s ideas of free markets and apply it to the issue of bureaucracy within the NHS.
Hayek’s thesis was that socialism eventually leads to totalitarianism (Gamble, 1996a). We see this progressing into reality from recent reports. Government reports have released data, stating doctors spend around 10 hours a week, collating and reading data, which is more than 25% of doctors’ working hours. 1/3 of this data wasn’t useful in providing care for patients and ¼ of bureaucratic demands came from national bodies such as NHS trusts (Donnelly, 2013). In Hayek’s terms this is considered to be inferior due to the NHS being a political organisation of bureaucracy (where the government is the ultimate decision maker) rather than economic markets (Gamble, 1996b). The bureaucratic system is therefore …show more content…
The conservative government believed CCGs would lead to increased competition and choice. However there’s been less insistence on competition and more emphasis on strengthening regulations and providing better patient safety (Wigmore, 2015). Hayek would claim that placing more emphasis on regulations leads to administrative systems where all decisions are made and governed by officials. Privatising the NHS will open up free markets, increasing competition where doctors would compete for more contracts, resulting in better health care provisions where patients wouldn’t have to worry about the burden of taxes, thus leading to oligopoly markets which can ensure healthcare is prioritised over red
Hayek’s thesis was that socialism eventually leads to totalitarianism (Gamble, 1996a). We see this progressing into reality from recent reports. Government reports have released data, stating doctors spend around 10 hours a week, collating and reading data, which is more than 25% of doctors’ working hours. 1/3 of this data wasn’t useful in providing care for patients and ¼ of bureaucratic demands came from national bodies such as NHS trusts (Donnelly, 2013). In Hayek’s terms this is considered to be inferior due to the NHS being a political organisation of bureaucracy (where the government is the ultimate decision maker) rather than economic markets (Gamble, 1996b). The bureaucratic system is therefore …show more content…
The conservative government believed CCGs would lead to increased competition and choice. However there’s been less insistence on competition and more emphasis on strengthening regulations and providing better patient safety (Wigmore, 2015). Hayek would claim that placing more emphasis on regulations leads to administrative systems where all decisions are made and governed by officials. Privatising the NHS will open up free markets, increasing competition where doctors would compete for more contracts, resulting in better health care provisions where patients wouldn’t have to worry about the burden of taxes, thus leading to oligopoly markets which can ensure healthcare is prioritised over red