The NHS crisis
The NHS is one of Britain’s best features, it aims to give everyone free health care in an accessible and inclusive way. Citizens both love and hate it. The NHS is something to be loved when a family member suddenly becomes ill or you are involved in a car crash as you know that it will be there free of charge to help you. But, when you have been sat in accident and emergency for 4 hours with a broken arm, it becomes a source of annoyance.
Even before Brexit, the NHS suffered staff shortages and tight budgets but in the year following the referendum over 10,000 nurses quit. In November, Simon Stevens (the chief executive of the service) said that after seven years of budget constraints “the NHS can no longer do everything that is being asked of it”.
After a flu outbreak, cold weather and a result of a shortage of beds some hospitals declared “black alerts” meaning they were unable to deliver comprehensive care. However, despite the clear struggle the NHS is going through, the government insist everything is fine. In January, Prime Minister Theresa May was asked if the service was in crisis and responded that it was better prepared for Winter than “ever before”.
Yet, people aren’t receiving the care they need and only recently have these people started to opt out of the NHS. Brexit’s main argument for leaving was that there would be more money for the NHS and therefore less strain put on the service but, now that the Brexit campaigners have informed everyone that this isn’t the case many worry what will become of the NHS in the future. If it is struggling to cope now what will become of it when there is even less money to fund it?
As a nation many believe in the NHS, the safety net to fall back on keeps us from living in fear. Very little citizens have to fund their healthcare off of 'gofundme' sites and especially not in a life or death situation. People don’t have to worry about insurance or what to do if they are unable to afford it, people don’t die because they can’t afford their medication and people don’t have to pay to give birth simply because they are taking up a bed. If the NHS “breaks” like many of its staff think it will, private entities will take its place and we will end up in a system that helps only the rich leaving lower-class and people in poverty to suffer.
If we want to save the NHS the British public need to be completely aware of the situation and the Government need to be honest enough to admit to the crisis it is in.
If you personally want to help this link will send you to a website which gives you ideas about what you can do to help save Britain’s healthcare: