I’m a doctor and I’ve wondered for the past decade why people haven’t noticed/aren’t angry at what’s happening to the NHS at the hands of the Conservative governments. Doctors and nurses have been screaming into the void about it for years. And no, it hasn’t always been the same including under Blair, things were a damn sight better under Blair, I actually enjoyed my job then. I would say we all still had the time and energy for compassion and to strive for clinical excellence in our care at that stage, we’d put our heads together over coffee to try to figure out a particularly tricky patient etc, now we are all just firefighting all the time and trying to keep our head above water and barely have time to grunt at each other exhaustedly as we hand over the bleep - even pre COVID. A few years ago when we had trollies piled up in corridors and a major crisis when people died during what was actually a very mild flu season, I thought maybe the general public will now start to demand better.
What I have observed unfortunately is people HAVE noticed and ARE angry but unfortunately they are directing their anger in the wrong place, having swallowed the Conservative lies line hook and sinker - that there is plenty money but it’s just horribly mismanaged etc. It’s gaslighting. A bit like telling the mother who has fallen on hard times and is trying to get by on benefits that she wouldn’t need to use food banks if she just managed her money better and there would be no point in increasing her benefits when that is what would really improve quality of life. I’ve seen the people in charge of local NHS units tearing their hair out nearly in tears wondering what else we can cut at this point and admitting that we are going to have to compromise patient safety just to make ends meet as the budgets set by government for what they want delivered are so unrealistic. They are talking about cutting all fertility treatment for example at my local unit, already you have to jump through a lot of hoops to qualify and now they are starting to say they simply can’t afford to offer IVF to anyone ever.
The amount of people I hear slagging off doctors and nurses and the NHS in general is gobsmacking. I’m not going to sit here and pretend it’s perfect, it’s not, primarily due to starvation of funding and appalling treatment of healthcare workers by government (plus an entitled attitude from many patients). I’ve literally never in my working life seen morale lower, and I suspect healthcare professionals will be quitting in droves in this country once we are past the crisis situation of the pandemic. It used to be really rare to meet a fellow doctor who didn’t love their job, now it’s rare to find someone who isn’t desperate to quit. It should be sobering but the general public seem absolutely blind to it.
And unfortunately I do believe this government are driving the NHS into the ground deliberately. They want the public to think how shit the NHS is so that nobody resists their plan to bring in US style private health care. What really concerns me Ian that I’m already hearing the general public voice support for this plan, saying they wish we had private health care like the US and not the NHS that we have. People are falling right into that trap. I don’t blame people for wanting and expecting something better from a health service but they are really placing blame at the wrong feet and buying into solutions which will bankrupt them. Mark my words, everyone will miss the NHS when it’s gone and there will be no bringing it back.
I agree with others here that a French style system or similar could work but that is not what the Conservatives have planned for us all unfortunately.