Trump’s broad side at the NHS
New row after he tweets that healthcare in UK ‘is going broke and doesn’t work’
DONALD Trump triggered another diplomatic row with Britain last night after claiming the NHS was ‘going broke and not working’.
The US President wrote that ‘thousands of people are marching’ in the UK against the NHS, and insisted universal healthcare systems were ‘really bad’.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt hit back, saying he was ‘proud’ he came from a country where ‘all get care, no matter the size of their bank balance’.
Downing Street intervened to say Theresa May was proud of the NHS, adding that funding was ‘at a record high’.
Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, invited the US President to visit British hospitals to ‘spend time with our brilliant doctors’.
Scottish Labour’s health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: ‘Donald Trump’s attack on the NHS has managed to unite our divided country.
‘While no one doubts our health service is badly overstretched because Tory and SNP governments won’t deliver the support it needs, we also know the British model for the health service – free at the point of use, funded by progressive taxa- tion – is a better option for the sick than the American model, which Trump seems determined to dismantle.’
Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘The NHS has many challenges north and south of the Border, some of which make it feel like it’s an organisation at breaking point.
‘However, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in the UK who’d swap it for the US system.’
The health row is the latest spat between the UK and the US since Mr Trump came to office, despite his claim the special relationship is alive and well.
In November he was rebuked by Mrs May for retweeting videos posted by the far-Right Britain First group. This prompted Mr Trump to instruct the PM to focus on ‘terrorism’ in the UK.
The US President revealed earlier this month he had cancelled plans for a visit to London amid the threat of huge protests, although there may be a working visit later in the year.
Mr Trump made the attack on the NHS as part of a row with his Democratic Party opponents, many of whom want a British-style universal health system in the US.
‘Got the wrong end of the stick’
Apparently referring to a rally in London on Saturday calling for more Government support for the NHS, he tweeted: ‘The Democrats are pushing for universal health care while thousands of people are marching in the UK because their u[niversal] system is going broke and not working.
‘Dem[ocrat]s want to greatly raise taxes for really bad and nonpersonal medical care. No thanks!’
But Mr Hunt responded to Mr Trump’s Twitter attack with a post of his own.
‘I may disagree with claims made on that march but not ONE of them wants to live in a system where 28million people have no cover,’ he said.
The PM’s official spokesman said she was ‘proud of having an NHS which is free at the point of delivery. The Commonwealth Fund international survey recently rated the NHS the best healthcare service in the world for the second time in a row.’
But he insisted Mrs May and Mr Trump continue to have a ‘good relationship’.
Mr Stevens told MPs on the Commons public accounts committee Mr Trump had ‘got the wrong end of the stick’ and referred to his remarks as a ‘Twitter attack on the health service’. He said: ‘People in this country don’t want to ditch our NHS. They want to keep it and strengthen it.
‘Our invitation in the NHS, should the President be visiting later this year, would be to spend time with our brilliant doctors, hospitals, technology experts, scientists, hear about the cataract services, the hip replacements, the modern scanners, the world-first liver, heart and lung transplants, the genomic revolution all under way here in the NHS.’
He added: ‘Healthcare for everybody delivered at half the cost of the US healthcare system is something people in this country are deeply and rightly committed to.’
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mr Trump was ‘wrong’, adding: ‘People were marching because we love our NHS.’
Mr Trump’s comments came shortly after former Ukip leader Nigel Farage appeared on one of the President’s favourite TV news shows, Fox and Friends.
Mr Farage said the NHS was ‘at breaking point due to a population crisis’, adding: ‘We haven’t got enough hospitals, doctors or facilities to cope.’ After Mr Farage’s appearance, Mr Trump thanked the show for ‘exposing the truth’.