I agree with some of the comments on the NHS. As someone who now works there even I can see were huge savings could be made. Compairing the service to Private healthcare is actually not comparing like with like. Private HC companies pick and choose their patients carefully creaming of the easy and simple stuff leaving the complicated stuff to the NHS. Most Private hospitals have No ICU capibility and when needed they dump the patient by blue light ambulance on the NHS to treat at the cost of the NHS. Also you find many patients who are operated on in Private hospitals are admitted to the NHS when they get complications and post op infections again the NHS picks up the tab. Private hospitals also don't have to sort out the very complicated social problems that patients present with in the NHS that delay some discharges for months. I work in a surgical area and we even now are filling with bed blockers from elderley and medical directorates because there isn't the social care available from local councils and families have at times very unrealistic expectations of what we can provide. Now as our surgical beds become blocked we can't admit waiting list patients into them so we have to pay for Private sector to carry out some of our work or be fined for failling to meet targets.
The government said that it would look at reducing the ammount of paperwork NHS staff have to fill in infact we've had at least 1 new form to complete for each patient introduced every month since the Con/Dem colition was elected.
Frontline services aren't safe either we've lost a care of the elderley ward (Hence the reason we're already getting bed blockers) staff redeployed to stop having to recruit nurses and budget redeployed to preserve "Jobs". IE to keep admin staff employed. The recruitment freeze has stopped Nurse,Physio,OT,Pharmacist recruitment but still plenty of jobs for secretaries, managers assistants to managers and directors. But being a Foundation trust the department of health has a limited say in how we're run (BTW all trusts are going to be foundation trusts in future)
The new reforms will make existing problems worse. What needs to happen is a complete review or royal comission on the NHS but as has correctly been said no government has the political guts to do this and add social care into it as well.
OK not fully related to the thread but until all across government service certain realities are faced we won't have any money to invest on defence and sorting out the imbalance in our forces.