The Failure of Conventional MedicineWhy, after spending so much on health, do we face such a plethora of illness, including many 'new' illnesses; and why are so many diseases now at such unprecedented, epidemic levels?by Steven Scrutton10 August 2011 
Steve Scrutton has written a brilliant analysis of modern medicine, using the UK's National Health Service (NHS) as the focal point. The author has kindly granted permission to publish it in serial form. Here's the first installment: Introduction"If the people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." Thomas Jefferson. Conventional, orthodox or 'scientific' medicine, which is at the heart of the NHS, is generally believed to be a positive benefit to humankind. We are constantly told that conventional medicine (henceforth referred to as 'ConMed') is beating disease, and that as a result we are all becoming healthier, and living longer. Such is our faith in ConMed, the nation is prepared to spend over £100 billion on ConMed every year, about 8% of our GDP! [NOTE: In the US, it's about 18% of the Gross National Product!] Yet in terms of health outcomes, is the ConMed dominated NHS worth the investment? Read on, and the assumption that it is will be examined. The underlying principles of the National Health Service (NHS) - to provide a health service for all, free at the point of need, regardless of income or wealth - is one that makes us justly proud. We want to defend it - and these principles are certainly worth defending. Yet when we examine the annual expenditure on health, and then compare this with the health outcomes that arise from that expenditure, grounds for serious concern begin to arise. Why, after spending so much on health, do we face such a plethora of illness, including many 'new' illnesses; and why are so many diseases now at such unprecedented, epidemic levels? The reasons for the perceived, and generally recognised failures of the NHS, have never been properly identified. Failure is usually blamed on 'under investment' or 'bad management' within the NHS. Yet successive UK governments have thrown enormous resources at the NHS, in desperate attempts to 'make it work'. Indeed, the history of the NHS shows that there has been no lack of political will to resource the NHS, and the frequent restructuring of past decades would suggest that management is not the serious impediment it is made out to be. It is difficult to manage something that does not work! The real reason for the failure is both simpler and more fundamental. The NHS was meant to provide access to the best possible health provision for all - but after its inauguration in 1948 it rapidly, and as will be seen, disastrously, sold out to one form of medicine - ConMed. The NHS has, for over 60 years, invested its resources almost exclusively in ConMed treatment, to the extent that the two are now virtually indistinguishable - hence the term used here - 'NHS-ConMed'. The failures of the NHS are medical - not political or financial. It is the failure of a medical system dominated by pharmaceutical drugs, the failure of the very medicines the NHS has prescribed in ever-increasing quantities since 1948, that explains NHS failure. This e-book seeks to bring together each strand of the case against the NHS-ConMed Establishment. In past decades each successive crises it has experienced, for instance, when drugs like Thalidomide, HRT and Vioxx, and hundreds of others, have been restricted, withdrawn or banned over the decades, the assumption has remained that these are 'isolated', 'one-off' events, that can be discounted as mere 'errors' or 'mistakes'. Unfortunately they are not. The NHS has committed itself to a system of medicine that has proven itself to be both unsafe (dangerous) and ineffective (useless). Even the 'science' upon which it is supposed to be based is deeply flawed by the corruption of the big multi-national drug companies - Big Pharma, and the regulatory system which is supposed to oversee its activities. NHS-ConMed is failing - disastrously - at enormous public expense - and apparently with the full blessing of successive generations of politicians and governments. When all the evidence is brought together, as it will be herein, a picture of abject failure, of inherently harmful and dangerous medical practices, will emerge. Moreover, it will be found that NHS-ConMed, and its failures, are supported by an intricate web of political, financial and media manipulation that is designed to keep in the dark, and deceive the public. Can these stark and devastating statements be supported? This e-book seeks to provide the evidence. It does so not by producing new or original evidence or research, but merely by looking at what is already known, accepted, and published in the public media, in medical journals, and on the internet. In addition, the e-book seeks to demonstrate that the reasons for NHS-ConMed's failure can be explained by examining the insights traditional medicine, and in particular homeopathy, can provide for us.
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