Our cherished NHS needs proper funding
UNLESS you’re Donald Trump reading this, you will know that our NHS is one of our great national institutions.
Almost everyone owes a lot - some even their lives - to the principle of a health system which is paid for collectively but is available on the basis and at the time of need and not the ability to pay.
And it’s not just the medical technology or even the skills of the people who make it work, it’s the human decency and compassion that’s there when accident or sickness lays us low.
That’s why last week millions of people were out celebrating the 70th birthday of this wonderful institution and remembering the contribution of the nurses, doctor, and everyone who makes it work.
We need to cherish our NHS. But it’s also why many have been out campaigning to demand proper funding for a health and social care system which has been so badly treated during the years of Conservative (and LibDem) government recession. Those of you who can cast you mind back to the days of the Thatcher government, will remember the growing waiting lists, the increasing practice of people being offered private consultations - at a cost - to jump higher up the NHS queues. Well we’re right back there again.
Just one figure leaps out; over two and a half million people have had to wait more than four hours to be seen at Accident and Emegency.
That’s children, women and men, some in real pain, some just worried and frightened, forced to wait because the medical teams are under- resourced and over-stretched.
So when Theresa May promises with a loud fanfare, new money for our health service, it’s not really a surprise to find that it’s simply not enough.
There’s not enough for our hospital and GP services to cut back on the waiting lists that are building up.
There’s not enough to put the investment in for the technologies of today and tomorrow that we need.
There’s not enough to help our social care services offer the human decency that a great society like our should offer.
I’m always proud to say that it was Labour’s finest act to create our NHS but it’s got to be Labour’s commitment that once again a Labour government will put your money and mine where we need it and that is into a health service that once again can be the world’s best.