Newslink October

Special feature
The changing face of
healthcare in the UK
Coronavirus has changed every aspect of
our lives: how we work, how we shop
and how we socialise.
It also appears to be changing how we
look after our health. According to a
recent national survey*, a growing
number of people in the UK are
considering taking out private medical
insurance, with 27 per cent of those
polled saying they have thought about
paying privately for healthcare, compared
with only 15 per cent before the
pandemic struck.
The NHS response to the coronavirus
outbreak has been heroic. The skill and
dedication of hospital staff has saved
many lives. But to enable the health
service to meet the unprecedented
demand caused by Covid-19, many
specialist treatments and routine
operations had to be postponed. And
concern over lengthening NHS waiting
times is the main reason why people are
now thinking about taking out private
medical insurance.
Of the 1,000 people questioned for the
survey, three-quarters said it was long
NHS waiting lists that was their main
concern, while 67 per cent were worried
about the NHS being able to promptly
deliver routine care.
Private health insurance can’t prevent
you from falling ill. But it does offer the
peace of mind that comes from knowing
that in the event you do need medical
care, you will be diagnosed and treated
in the quickest possible time.
And in these uncertain times that is
something that many people seem happy
to pay for.
* Consumer Intelligence survey
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
For further information and quotations
contact HMCA by telephone on 01423
799949 or visit the exclusive HMCA
Motor Schools Association of Great
Britain website here:
https://www.hmca.co.uk/msa
Examiners’ angst spells trouble for ADIs
Rod Came
MSA South East
You will have read on page 10 about the
current state of relations between the
examiners and their employer, the DVSA.
From the tone, it sounds like industrial
action could be in the offing. Certainly,
relations are not cordial. Whatever action
might be taken in the future would
impinge on our clients being able to book
a driving test. The situation for test
bookings is terrible now; further
disruption would make it intolerable.
I have previously suggested that in
these troubled times ADIs should be able
to certify that their clients have reached
a suitable standard to pass a driving test
and be awarded a test pass. See News
Bulletin no. 21, 1st September for the
logic to support this proposition.
As a temporary measure it would go a
long way to getting test waiting times to
a position where clients and ADIs could
book a test for the date where the skill of
the client would be at its best, with a
consequent increase in the pass rate.
This rate would then be the marker
against which test centres would be
expected to conform with if, or when,
things return to normal.
24
As normality will be months or even
years from now, DVSA needs to take
immediate action to alleviate the current
waiting time crisis. It cannot be allowed
to drift on for years; it is totally unfair to
people who both want and need a driving
licence for all sorts of employment,
business and personal reasons.
Of course, there would be tremendous
resistance from DVSA to the idea of ADIs
issuing driving test passes. Such a move
would raise the status of ADIs in the
eyes of the general public and reduce the
authority of DVSA driving examiners. It
probably would need endless debate in
Parliament for which no time could be
found, there being many other subjects
considered to be of greater importance,
so the status quo will continue for years,
much to the disadvantage of people
coming up to voting age.
The next general election is more than
four years away. No party that has
aspirations of government would want to
have over a million disgruntled voters
affecting their election chances just
‘‘More consideration of the
needs of ADIs and their
clients would be a move in
the right direction...”
because they cannot get a driving test. In
some marginal constituencies that could
mean the difference between winning
and losing; no party would want that.
But it could happen.
NASP, which represents working ADIs,
has regular meetings with DVSA. I do not
know whether these sometimes become
heated affairs or not. From what I see
and read, these are rather polite
discussions during which NASP raises a
point and DVSA offers several reasons
why that cannot be considered or
brought into practice. DVSA is both
judge and jury regarding what it does
– and doesn’t – do, a rather dictatorial
state of affairs which benefits nobody.
More consideration by DVSA of the
needs and requirements of its clients and
ADIs would be a move in the right
direction. At the moment DVSA is trying
to maintain a balance between its staff,
on whom they rely, and its clients, who
have no choice where they can go to get
the driving licence they so badly need.
A rock and a hard place perhaps, but
why should ADIs and its clients suffer
because of this? The answer is that they
should not.
DVSA has to come to a compromise to
satisfy its clients in the first instance,
then its workforce as well. The sooner
they do that, the better for all involved.
NEWSLINK n OCTOBER 2020