As far as I can see there isn’t a Tory policy – they just bury their heads in the sand and hope people will go private
BRITAIN’S top brain surgeon has slammed government health policy, blaming dishonesty, mismanagement and “wicked targets” for wrecking the NHS.
Henry Marsh, CBE, says it has left doctors “alienated, p*ssed-off and demoralised” and that the Tories are condemning the NHS to “death by a thousand cuts”.
Mr Marsh, 67, saved countless lives in his eminent 40-year career.
He told the Mirror: “As far as I can see there isn’t a Tory policy – other than burying their heads in the sand and vaguely hoping people will go private.
“Hospitals were £2.45billion in the red last year – the biggest overspend in NHS history. The Government talks of £20billion efficiency changes – cuts by any other name – and suggest it’s all a case of reorganisation and better management. But they are making us play a game of musical chairs.
“More of us are running around the same number of chairs, but all the Government does is employ a more expensive orchestra... management consultants who, in my experience, are completely useless and don’t understand the first thing about healthcare.”
Mr Marsh retired two years ago from St George’s Hospital, London, after “years and years of frustration” and wrote an acclaimed autobiography, Do No Harm. A second volume, Admissions, is out now.
He specialises in operating on the brain using local anaesthetic and was honoured by the Queen in 2010. He still teaches and works in Nepal and Ukraine, where he has pioneered surgical advances.
He hit out at the “grotesque charade” of routine op targets that meant he was penalised for saving lives. “If they are going to continue starving the NHS of funds they have to let the clinicians decide what is urgent and when to treat,” he said.
“In my department if we do too many emergencies, we don’t get funded for it.
“Economists think people only do things if they have financial incentives and fines. The idea of public service – that you do the work for the patients irrespective of money – seems alien to them.”
Mr Marsh, of Wimbledon, SouthWest London, took a scalpel to the Tories’ claims they are investing in the NHS, saying he has seen bed blocking, failing social care and staff shortages at first hand.
Mr Marsh, who backs Lib-Dem plans for a penny on income tax to pay for health and social care, says the NHS has been underfunded for decades and we spend less, per head, on healthcare than any other modern country.
He added: “Modern healthcare is frightfully expensive – we have an ageing population and modern technology costs more, while pharmaceutical companies charge vast sums of money for life-saving drugs.
“So politicians need to say, ‘If you want a first class health service, you will have to pay more’.”