From the BBC:
Doctors have urged England to follow Scotland's example in avoiding the use of the private sector and competition in the NHS.
British Medical Association chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum said the health service in England was being run like a "shoddy supermarket war".
Doctors at the BMA's annual conference voted for the NHS in England to only use private firms as a last resort.
Officials said the private sector was only used when it could improve care.
Ministers have tried to create an NHS market by using the private sector and encouraging hospitals to compete for patients. About one in 10 elective operations are now done by private providers.
Meanwhile, successive administrations in Scotland have preferred to use private health firms only as a last resort when the NHS cannot provide the treatment.
England's approach has led to quicker progress on waiting times with hospitals closing in on an 18-week waiting target by the end of the year compared to the deadline of 2011 in Scotland.
But Dr Meldrum, who was born and trained as a doctor in Edinburgh, suggested the market reforms were an "English disease" which had not improved quality or efficiency, and fragmented services.
An "English disease"? Surely that's a little rich, considering that Gordon Brown, PM, represents a Scots constituency, that Foundation Hospitals were foisted on England by MPs representing Scots constituencies and that the Barnett Formula ensures more funding for the Scottish NHS than the English NHS? Dr Meldrum, surely an educated man, seems to be carefully avoiding stating certain very pertinent facts.
Sadly, Dr Meldrum seems unable to avoid the instinctive Scottish habit of taking a swipe at the English, when the reality is that the current state of affairs is largely being created by biased and uncaring Scots politicians, wreaking havoc in England.
In an article featured on the CEP News Blog, Dr Meldrum displays disturbing elements of racism: “Devolution has always been portrayed as the three Celtic nations breaking away from England. In the case of the NHS, it’s been the other way round. England has broken away from the rest of the UK.”
"Three Celtic nations"? Northern Ireland is a province, not a nation, and surely being full citizens of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland does not depend on being white and bigotedly deluded about your origins?
Is this man really fit to be head of the BMA?
I used to think that the Scots had an inferiority complex about the English but now realise that the Scotch members of the cabinet and the speaker are simply inferior with delusions of adequacy.
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