We need a people’s vote on the NHS
APPLE launches an app to help us spend less time looking at our Apple smartphones. And they say irony is dead.
This week, an Nhs chief called James Palmer told a conference that the health service must ‘be prepared’ for the prospect of two million Britons questioning their gender.
he said that referrals for gender dysphoria — when people feel they were born in the wrong body — have gone up by a staggering 240 per cent in the past five years.
in case you were wondering, Nhs-funded operations for sufferers include mastectomies and gender reassignment procedures, but Mr Palmer said that in future we may also pay for reversing gender reassignment surgery.
‘it’s got to be a good thing that there are people out there who want to explore their gender,’ he said, adding that ‘ no other specialist service has seen this growth, anywhere near. As a result, there is absolutely not sufficient capacity in the system.’
in other words, can we have more money, please.
While i accept that genuine gender dysphoria should be treated with sympathy and respect by all of us, including the Nhs, i suspect that many would question whether a financially challenged health service can afford to offer such surgery to anyone who feels that they need it.
But
really that’s not the real issue here. the point is the Nhs belongs to the people who fund it: British taxpayers. What happens to the health service should not be decided by pressure groups and political lobbyists or individuals with vested interests, but by us.
Which is why i’m convinced we should have a referendum on the future of the Nhs.
‘Oh no, not another one!’ i hear you wail. ‘Are you mad?’ Possibly. But bear with me. it doesn’t take a genius to see that thanks to decades of political inertia, all attempts to reform the way the Nhs is run and funded have failed. As a result, in some areas it’s in an advanced state of paralysis, wedded to the ideology that it must be free at the point of delivery, yet lacking the resources to function effectively in a country of nearly 70 million people.
Meanwhile, anyone who dares utter a batsqueak about serious reform is guaranteed to be tornlimb from limb by the Left, who guard what they see as their greatest political achievement like a rabid dog with a bone. No politician would dare to grasp the nettle and overhaul the Nhs from top to bottom. to do so properly would mean slaughtering so many sacred cows it would turn the house of Commons into an abattoir.
But put the decision in the hands of the people and it becomes an entirely different matter. if those who fund the Nhs have decided how it should be run, then they wouldn’t have the right to attack the Government which carries out the reforms.
A referendum would allow us to have a proper debate about funding. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Yes/No decision like the Eu vote, but a series of crucial questions could be asked.
should we have an insurance system, perhaps, where everyone would contribute directly to the Nhs, instead of lining the pockets of private insurance companies?
Or would we all rather pay an extra few pence in National insurance contributions, as Gordon Brown suggested this week? Or maybe charging to see a GP would be popular? it would certainly cut down on the number of people who miss appointments.
the important thing is to have the conversation. if we don’t act soon, this greatest of British institutions will expire because no one has the guts to perform radical, life-saving surgery.