Destruction of the NHS

[Padster]

One has only to open a newspaper or switch on the TV news to see how the Tories are deliberately running down the NHS. The government’s recipe for disaster is to lower staff morale by holding down pay which causes people to leave the NHS in search of better paid jobs, which in turn has an impact on patient care, which leads to horror stories in the press and further lowers staff morale. Then, make the management look totally incompetent by firing 2000 staff and then re-hiring them in their old posts. Turn A and E into a public relations disaster zone with blaring headlines in the Daily Wail accompanied by pictures of patients on trollies in this, the winter in which A&E finally goes belly up. And continue, unseen by the public, the inevitable privatisation of the service.

I believe we are entering the NHS’s final phase as a great public institution. The Tories will privatise it, there seems little doubt about that. They just have to find a way to convince the public, in much the same way they have in demonising those on welfare.

There is a little lesson from the Tories past which should serve as a warning. Eighteen months before the general election of 1992, an election which the Tories assumed it would lose and with government policy a tad thin on the ground, it decided to privatise the railways. Civil servants had trouble taking this seriously and thought that Neil Kinnock would knock privatisation on the head on gaining power. To everyone’s amazement, the Tories won the election. But they needn’t have worried. As things turned out, Labour was unable to re-nationalise the railways under Tony Blair, and apart from the ECML they remain run by private companies.

Best wishes,
Padster

 

[Kaninchen]

One has only to open a newspaper or switch on the TV news to see how the Tories are deliberately running down the NHS. The government’s recipe for disaster is to lower staff morale by holding down pay which causes people to leave the NHS in search of better paid jobs, which in turn has an impact on patient care, which leads to horror stories in the press and further lowers staff morale. Then, make the management look totally incompetent by firing 2000 staff and then re-hiring them in their old posts. Turn A and E into a public relations disaster zone with blaring headlines in the Daily Wail accompanied by pictures of patients on trollies in this, the winter in which A&E finally goes belly up. And continue, unseen by the public, the inevitable privatisation of the service.

I believe we are entering the NHS’s final phase as a great public institution. The Tories will privatise it, there seems little doubt about that. They just have to find a way to convince the public, in much the same way they have in demonising those on welfare.

There is a little lesson from the Tories past which should serve as a warning. Eighteen months before the general election of 1992, an election which the Tories assumed it would lose and with government policy a tad thin on the ground, it decided to privatise the railways. Civil servants had trouble taking this seriously and thought that Neil Kinnock would knock privatisation on the head on gaining power. To everyone’s amazement, the Tories won the election. But they needn’t have worried. As things turned out, Labour was unable to re-nationalise the railways under Tony Blair, and apart from the ECML they remain run by private companies.

I think one of the central problems with the NHS is that it’s difficult to have a sensible conversation about it - it’s as if we either have to keep it as it was established and spend more and more and more and more or face millions dying in the streets while fat cat capitalists grow ever richer.

The thing is that there are real alternatives that need exploring - or has everybody failed to notice that our neighbours have alternative forms of ‘universal healthcare’ that work and we might actually learn from?

 

[Nelka]

It could be worse.

Labour could be back in power.

 

[MarcusAndreas]

Labour, Tory, they’re all clowns.

 

[Matilda_Bennett]

Please remember that discussions of particular political parties or figures are not allowed in the Social Justice forum. Thank you for your cooperation.

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

• it’s as if we either have to keep it as it was established and spend more and more and more and more or face millions dying in the streets while fat cat capitalists grow ever richer.

Agreed. I don’t think that the status quo is sustainable. It will have to change at some point. No need to assume the worst.

It could be worse.

Labour could be back in power.

Oh, just wait for the next election. I’m pretty convinced we’ll see them back.