Forget Brexit... saving the NHS must be our priority
YOU may not of heard of Pat McDonald. Why should you? She is a pensioner from Merseyside not a celebrity. You will however have heard stories similar to hers.
Everyday stories of everyday people being let down exactly at the moment of their greatest need.
Every one of these stories shames us as a nation.
Every one of these stories should be on page one of every newspaper in the land.
You see Pat, who is 75 and who used to work as a nurse, took a tumble outside her sheltered accomodation. An ambulance was called. And then, with her broken wrist and bruised bones, she waited. And waited.
Hot water bottles and blankets were brought – she was laying on a cold and wet concrete patio afterall. But the wait went on.
After three hours the ambulance arrived. Pat’s daughter, also a nurse, had nothing but praise for the paramedics who attended her mum. The delay was not their fault.
The local hospital was rammed with patients who had been brought in by their colleagues who could not leave their charges until they had been assigned a hospital bed.
And there weren’t enough beds to go round.
Pat’s daughter is clear. Her mum’s experience was nobody’s fault other than the government’s. End of.
The NHS is in crisis and, from where I sit, those in charge have no answers.
There has been a decade of cuts, waiting times in some areas of the country are the worst on record and there are chronic staff shortages. Those staff who remain are demoralised and stressed.
Long term challenges, including an overhaul of social care, have been ignored and now it seems there is a looming threat that, post Brexit, our health service may be opened up to US market forces.
The NHS is coming apart at the seams and, most worrying of all, we are not yet in the worst of winter.
God knows how things will be come February. God knows how many more Pats will be left lying on the floor or on a trolley in a corridor.
Pat deserves better. We all deserve better.
We deserve a government which has vision for the NHS and which will ensure, when it’s needed, the safety net will be there for us all should we fall.