In sickness and health

By Jason Moore A new hospital will be in opening in Palma over the coming months and it will be state of the art. Son Espasses will replace Son Dureta as Palma´s main national health hospital. The capital already has the smaller Son Llatzer hospital, which is less than 10 years old, and soon it will be joined by one which is even newer. Without doubt the Spanish National Health Service is good if not excellent. I have heard nothing but praise from people who use it. New hospitals, no real waiting times and great staff. This state of affairs got me thinking; why can Spain have a first rate NHS network of hospitals and Britain can´t. The NHS in Britain appears to be getting worse rather than better and with spending cuts on the horizon the NHS will get even sicker. So what is Spain doing right and Britain doing wrong? I would say that Spain works long and hard to produce doctors and nurses while Britain works long and hard to produce administrators and hospital clerical workers. This is probably one of the chief reasons the NHS continues to fail in Britain. It is simple. You need medical staff in hospitals not bureaucrats. Until this state of affairs is fixed Britain will continue to pour money into the health service for little or no return.