What did we do to mark the Anniversary weekend of the 72nd year of the NHS? Well some of us met for a walk and talk meeting through Hinchingbrooke Park. None of us felt like celebrating as we felt it was disingenuous to clap and cheer when we know that our once world-leading health service is now being crippled by the current government cuts and restructuring along the USA Healthcare (the World’s worst) – even at this time of emergency and pandemic.
We want to thank all the staff on every level of our health service who have continued to work for all of us during this pandemic period. Despite a government who seemed to have been prioritising private company contracts over people’s lives – the staff of the NHS have proven themselves to be the most hard-working and committed workforce we need to be turly grateful for. We hope that they are now fully supported by their managers and administration bodies of NHS England.
On our walk through the lovely park we talked about the last few months and all the failings of the government – the lack of Personal Protective Equipment, the useless NHS App, the moving of hospital patients into the community and care homes WITHOUT Covid19 Testing, and now the current chaos of the privatised Test Track and Trace system which has been a disaster – costing us, according to new reports a massive £10billion! Yet Public Health receives less than £1bn and should be the recipient of the money. That is where the expertise lies. Not in Deloitte, Serco and G4S to name but a few.
There has never been a more urgent time to examine the failing of the privatised NHS and Social Care. The interference of private companies is now destroying our once world-leading public service and replacing it with an expensive profit focused corporation managed NHS. We stand by our commitment to bring back the NHS into public hands – restored as a publicly funded.
So Happy 72nd Anniversary. It is worth remembering the political vision that set the NHS up and what it stood for – equality and social justice. We need that now more than ever.