The NHS is Broken, It Needs Reinventing: An Intelligence Squared Debate

The NHS is Broken, It Needs Reinventing
Professor Kenneth Minogue, Emeritus Professor of Political Science in London University; Harriet Sergeant, author of the widely-acclaimed Managing not to Manage: Management in the NHS; and Dr. Maurice Slevin, a Consultant Physician, Department of Medical Oncology at St. Bartholomew's and Homerton Hospitals, spoke for the motion.

Lord Phillip Hunt of Kings Heath, a member of the House of Lords; Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick, a general practitioner in East London for the past 20 years; and Professor Raymond Tallis, Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester, spoke against the motion.

Intelligence Squared is London's leading forum for live debate, holding regular debates on the crucial issues of the day and inviting the leading intellectual and political lights on the given subject to participate in them. The format of the debates is modelled on the one employed at the Oxford and Cambridge university Unions: a challenging, sharply defined motion; a team of speakers to propose the motion and a like number to oppose it; and a moderator to keep the speakers and the audience in order and force everyone to stick to the issues. After the main speeches and before summation, contributions are asked from the floor: audience participation is a key feature of the occasion, providing a rare opportunity for the public to voice their opinions and to challenge those of the speakers. A vote is taken before the debate begins and then again at the end so as to give a measure, often a very dramatic one, of the extent to which the audience has been swayed by the oratory and arguments of the speakers in the course of the evening.