UK’s free NHS turns 70
TESTED: CAN NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE SURVIVE IN ITS PRESENT FORM?
A political sacred cow, with parties competing to show their support for it.
Free, good quality healthcare for everyone, from cradle to grave. That was the mission of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) when it was founded on July 5, 1948.
Ask any patient, nurse or doctor at the Milton Keynes University Hospital in central England how they feel about the NHS now, and you will find that those core values are just as important today as they were 70 years ago.
“I’ve had so many things go wrong with my body in the last four-and-a-half years that it’s just incredible that one organisation can cure so many things and treat me so kindly, efficiently, and for free,” said Donald Ritson, 83. “It’s just astonishing.”
Ritson remembers what it was like before the state-funded NHS, when healthcare was beyond the reach of many people.
“I can remember my brother being ill and my parents being unable to afford to go to a doctor,” he recalled. “We could never go back to that sort of system. Cradle to grave, it’s not a bad idea.”
A former minister once wrote that the NHS is the closest thing the English have to a religion, and that often-repeated quote still rings true. It is a political sacred cow, with rival parties competing to show their support for it and to try to convince the public that it is safe in their hands.
But as much as Britons love the NHS, they also fret about it. Can it survive in its present form, in the face of ever-increasing pressures from an ageing population?
“Yes, I do worry about it,” said 29-year-old Sarah Plant. “There’s not enough funding and staffing to go around already.”
Plant, who has the rare Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, is a frequent user of the NHS, for herself and for her children who also have various health problems. She says she has noticed the pressures getting worse over the years, for example waiting times for certain tests have got longer.
Wayne Vassell, a junior doctor specialising in orthopaedics, said the NHS ideals were important to him as someone from a modest background, the first in his family to go to university. “For me the NHS means a lot because it’s a unique model that provides care to people irrespective of background and income.”
The hospital’s chief executive, Joe Harrison, was upbeat about the NHS’ long-term future. “I have total confidence that we’ll be here in another 70 years.” – Reuters