Marathon Pundit: British gov't-run health care: "Putting patients last"

Civitas, a British think tank, essentially calls Great Britain's government-run health care, the National Health Service, a failure, as the London Telegraph reports:

The Civitas report, Putting Patients Last, concludes that the NHS has put into practice the 10 Commandments of Business Failure as drawn up by Donald Keough, past president and former CEO of Coca-Cola.

Among these commandments are "assume infallibility" – the report says politicians talk of the NHS as "the envy of the world." However its outcomes are worse than other universal health care systems and the NHS ranks low in international surveys.

Another commandment is "isolate yourself" – healthcare is conducted in separate "silos", particularly regarding communication between GPs and hospitals.

A further commandment, "be inflexible," is met by hamstringing units with state control: staff pay is set centrally, capital expenditure is constrained, IT is a top-down programme and availability of drugs, such as expensive cancer treatments, is centrally determined.