Our NHS is a service – not a magic cult

THE NHS is a wonderful resource. But, as last week’s damning report into maternity failures at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust in Shropshire shows, it is not infallible.

Indeed, like all sprawling organisations, sometimes a corporate culture can be allowed to prevail that is deeply unhealthy. In this case, the drive to keep caesarean rates down led to the horrifically callous treatment of mothers in agony, and to the maiming and deaths of their babies by misguided and incompetent staff.

In a year when the response to coronavirus has elevated the NHS to revered status – a fact reinforced last week with the release of a twinkly, ‘heartwarming’ advert, made by NHS Charities, depicting

Father Christmas himself (right) being treated for coronavirus – let’s remember that the NHS is a public health resource which we all pay for via our taxes, not a cult.

Forty-two babies and 13 mothers died in the space of 19 years in Shropshire. Those are circumstances more worthy of a Stephen King novel than a worldbeating health service.