We Need To Talk About The NHS

It's April, here in the UK we're staring down the barrel at peak infection rates and we need to talk about the NHS. The Conservatives have been in power for a decade and during that time they've been hacking away at the NHS budget like an axe wielding serial killer. 

As soon as they re-entered the doors of 10 Downing Street they immediately began dismantling our healthcare system like a toddler intent on destruction. 

When it comes to the government selling off the NHS, think of it like a car. They're not selling the car as a whole, instead they'll strip it down and then sell it; start off with the wing mirrors, then the wipers, then the bonnet etc. Bit by bit, carving it up and selling it in small chunks and before you know it, the whole thing has been privatised. 

Now, onto austerity. 

In 2013 the NHS informed the government it was facing a £30 billion defecit in funding by the end of the decade, even if government spending kept in line with inflation. Two years later the government responded by promising £8 billion, as part of their 2015 general election manifesto. But that still left a £22 billion gaping hole in funding which the NHS would be expected to plug by cutting expenditure.

While the budget cuts to the health service are a part of a wider austerity program, it also serves an ulterior and more sinister purpose which begins with the modern Conservative view on the NHS as an institution and the wider healthcare system.

The founding principle of the NHS is 'freedom from fear'. Freedom from fear of not being able to meet life saving medical costs. Before the NHS existed, medical care was a luxury only the rich could afford and early deaths were common amongst the working class. 

As Rick Mayall's character Alan Bastard in The New Statesman said "In the old days you were poor... you got ill...and you died." 

Recent batches of Cabinet ministers have had questionable views on healthcare, to say the least. Dominic Raab is pro-privatisation of the NHS, and the former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt co- authored a book calling for replacing the NHS with a US style insurance based healthcare system. Put together by Douglas Carswell, the book authors include Michael Gove, Daniel Hannan and Kwarsi Kwarteng. 

The Pandemic 

A decade of budget cuts has left the NHS on its knees and there's now the added pressure of the viral pandemic. 

There are concerns in government that a chronically underfunded NHS simply will be crippled by the pandemic if it's not managed correctly. Hence all the "flattening the curve" rhetoric. 

Back in the real world we have a 100 year old man raising funds for the NHS like it's a charity. While I admire his good intentions, like the existence of food banks, it shouldn't have to happen in the first place. 

In a sense, the existence of charity implies a failed state.

Only time will tell how our healthcare system will cope, but with the Conservatives at the helm of system that is on its knees, the outlook isn't good. 

The NHS was a beacon of socialism and the wider good it can do. It's creation in 1948 as part of a wider socialist investment program that included the creation of the welfare state and 2 million council houses built, means it has been a part of most people's lives from day one. Consequently many take it for granted. 

Childbirth costs start at £14,000 in the US.

Cancer treatment is on average £30,000 a month.

Need an ambulance? £800.

The list is endless and if the country keeps voting Conservative that wil be our reality.

In the US there are over 16 million people without insurance and hundreds of thousands are declared bankrupt every year just to receive life saving treatment. Hospitals can even legally apply for bankruptcy orders on patients before discharging them if they deem that the patient doesn't have the means to settle their medical bills. 

Utterly astounding. 

There has been a human cost felt by the Tories attack on the NHS, the staff haven't escaped the budget cuts, public sector employees have seen a real terms pay cut that has left nurses turning to food banks. 

If you truly care about the NHS and it's staff, save your clapping, just don't vote Conservative at the next election.

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