More abject NHS numbers

The UK lags behind most of Europe in survival rates for cancer patients and stroke victims.

In the case of stroke victims, the cost of care seems to be at least as high in the UK as it is in European countries with better outcomes. This suggests that organisational and structural problems in delivery of resources are important, says Professor Markus, the author of the BMJ study. He writes that:

Countries with better outcomes focus resources more heavily on the acute aspects of care [i.e. diagnostic and specialised interventions]. The vast majority of the cost of in-hospital stroke care in the UK is for nursing and hospital overheads, with the cost of investigations and medical care being very low.

The think tank Reform attributes these failings to the outdated priorities of central planners - "the key effect of spending since 1999 has been to inflate the traditional hospital sector. This has actually prevented improvement, by absorbing resources that could be better spent on innovation". It calls for empowerment at local level.

So the huge, centralised Nationalised Health Service continues to be inefficient - as most centralised nationalised industries have been.

But it's a great gravy train for bureaucrats. In 2002 the government set up 28 Strategic Health Authorities. But, reports the BBC:

Three years later ministers announced £250m had to be cut from red tape and four years after they were created the regional bodies were merged into 10.

Some 764 people were made redundant or took early retirement at a cost of £82.89m.

For 61 senior managers the redundancy packages cost an average of £358,355.

There is plenty of publicity for professional soldiers killed in warfare.

British taxpayers didn't sign up for poor quality treatment of cancer and strokes. How many civilian lives does the government's incompetence cost each year, in these two fields alone?

Politicians - stuffed with their own importance - are confident in their ability to run this huge nationalised industry well.

But what's the evidence? None of them ever have run it well. The waste of lives is likely to continue for as long as they continue to indulge their vainglory.

Maybe we also need competition among providers.