There was an interesting and lengthy report yesterday on Channel 4 News about outcomes for patients treated by the NHS, which are markedly poorer than outcomes for patients in other developed countries. The issue has been raised by Sir Brian Jarman, an Emeritus Professor at Imperial College, London. His website http://www.brianjarman.com. After the programme I emailed him b.jarman@imperial.ac.uk with the following:
“Professor, good evening. I lead the political party Justice for men & boys (and the women who love them) and I was very interested to see the piece on Channel 4 News this evening on poor outcomes in the NHS.
We plan to contest 30 seats at the 2015 general election. I’ll personally be contesting Bedford & Kempston, and a few days ago a local paper, The Times & Citizen, printed a letter from me. It followed a recent report of the many failings of the local hospital:
The only surprise about the recent devastating report on the poor performance of Bedford Hospital is that anyone is surprised about it. People are surprised at every revelation of poor performance in the NHS. We shall inevitably be assured that lessons will be learned, only 10% achievement of targets will be acceptable in future, and so on. What will not be revealed, we can be sure, is ‘the elephant in the room’ – the relentless increase in the proportion of NHS doctors and consultants who are women.
Anna Soubry, a Conservative health minister, revealed in a debate a month or two ago that the increased proportion of female doctors in the NHS has had ‘unforeseen consequences’ for the service. She’s surely training for a future career as a stand-up comedienne. The writer and campaigner Dr Vernon Coleman was writing more than 30 years ago that the NHS’s policy of driving up the proportion of doctors who are women would have grave consequences in the long run, and time has proven him right (as it generally does).
Female doctors are far more likely than male doctors to quit the profession altogether, to work part-time rather than full-time, and to refuse to work unsocial hours or in the most stressful departments such as A&E. More than 70% of medical students today are women, and over 50% of GPs. The average GP today earns a cool £104,000 p.a.
Anna Soubry was forced to backtrack on her comments about ‘unforeseen consequences’, and later stated the NHS plans to train more doctors to ‘solve’ the crisis. It costs £250,000 to train a doctor, and we can be sure 70% of the new ones will again be women, although the costs will mainly be borne by men. British men collectively pay 72% of the income tax collected in the UK, £64 billion more than British women every year.
The feminisation of the NHS has proved to be a complete disaster for patients and taxpayers.
When, one wonders, will ‘the elephant in the room’ be recognised?”