Q. Who owns the NHS? A. Nobody

The tragic deaths of 1,400 people on a single A&E Ward in Staffordshire; over a period of just 3 years reminded me of a newspaper article I read a few years ago.

The colum was about how state owned companies and services; run by managers who get paid no matter what with little regard for 'clients' who may be hundreds of miles away care very little about the services they create.

The NHS is a text book case in this. The Health Minister has powers inherited; quite literally, from a Medieval Monarch. The NHS is no more broken in 2009 than it was in 1949, 1969, 1999, quite simply because it has a flawed design.

The National Health Service is the pinnacle of inhuman statist, corporatist, paternalistic folly. It showcases everything that was wrong about the political settlement post 1945. It was designed, in keeping with our feudal theme, to dispense the benefits of healthcare and sanitation to great full proles. Free healthcare is a noble aim, however, people's control over their own destiny must take priority over all other concerns. Otherwise you wined up with an unwhealdly, abrasive, corrupt and essentially heartless janopoly like the NHS. Such organisations become inefficient and subject to special interests. The petty politics of junior ministers, the news cycle and shop stewards.

It is often forgotten now that before the NHS many areas of the UK had perfectly adequate public healthcare systems. Birmingham was offering NHS style care decades before Labour managed to win a majority at a General Election. The NHS can never hope to compete with a locally managed system.

If our Government ever wants to improve the health system then they should decentralise. Just by reversing the Thatcherite reforms of the 1980s that created target setting and took healthcare out of the hands of local bodies, who understood local priorities and needs we could make a start!

Even better devolve the day to day running of healthcare to local authorities. Money to provide uniform coverage could come from central government if needs be. People could take control of their own health provision by encouraging health co-ops and private insurance. The private sector needs to be encouraged not scorned. Routine health and General Practice services could be provided a lot better by a private firm. Private firms have to look at customer satisfaction otherwise patients go elsewhere. A local GP with a monopoly on local care, soaking up grants for meeting Stalinesque targets, does not have this incentive.

If healthcare was provided through mutuals and co-ops then the views of members would legally have to be taken into account. The NHS, despite some recent improvements, is yet to have this oversight.

You own your body, demand to take back your healthcare!