Doing a disservice to the nation’s health

WHAT will it take for our craven politicians to admit that the NHS is simply no longer fit for purpose?

If any other organisation were mired in perpetual crisis, it would have been put out of its misery long ago.

Yet however chronic its failings, the Health Service is allowed to stagger on – a sacred cow that must not be touched.

Terrified of Labour accusations that they can’t be trusted with the NHS, the Tories persist with the myth that it is the envy of the world. Just how far removed that is from reality became clearer yesterday.

A&E units are treating record numbers, heart attack victims typically wait 90 minutes for an ambulance, and cancer care is creaking. Amid waiting lists caused by the pandemic, staff shortages and strikes, many hospitals are on their knees.

Predictably, Rishi Sunak is being urged to chuck billions more into the ever-burning furnace of the NHS budget.

Yet the record sums the Tories have shovelled in over the past decade have seen no noticeable improvement – and still Labour brands them parsimonious.

Part of the problem is that the social care crisis means thousands of beds are blocked by elderly people who should be looked after elsewhere. Meanwhile, too much money is wasted on middle managers and giving foreign nationals free treatment.

But the reality is that without radical reform the NHS is doomed. The major political parties cannot keep running scared from a serious debate on whether a monolithic, 75-year-old, state-run service is the best way of meeting Britain’s increasingly complex healthcare needs.

Dodging that discussion does both patients and staff a dreadful disservice.