HEALTHCARE SHOULD BE FREE.
WE MUST DEMOCRATISE OUR GLOBAL HEALTH SYSTEMS.
Authors Note:- Although this article is written from an English point of view the message is really Global.
“The greatest wealth is Health” Virgil.
In 1676 the Russian Empire attacked the Ottoman Empire attempting to establish a Black Sea port in the Ukraine. The attack failed, as did subsequent onslaughts in 1687 and 1689, right up to the present day. Then in the mid 1800’s France and Britain joined in to support the Turks. Thousand of wounded soldiers were sent from the Crimea to Barrack hospitals around Constantinople, where the conditions were not fit for purpose. The sewers didn’t work, the staff not trained, there was little medicine or even food. The soldiers, mostly drawn from impoverished backgrounds were undernourished even before battle. In 1853 around 350 of them died of their wounds, but ten times as many from typhus, cholera and dysentery… Then Florence Nightingale arrived with 68 volunteer nurses and nuns. Shocked at the lack of facilities, and disinterest of the authorities, she instituted regimes that led to a 95% reduction in death rate from disease.
Returning to Britain she spent the rest of her life campaigning for change, thereby establishing Nursing training as a Profession. She was opposed by the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State, jealous medical men, and the same Victorian conservative thinkers who were against votes for women……..
The next major political / medical battle followed WW2, almost a century after Crimea, with the work of William Beverage and Aneurin Bevan, which again posited that for Britain to win it’s wars, healthy soldiers need to come from a healthy civilian population. In spite of Conservative resistance, in 1948 thanks to the Labour Government, the National Health Service was born….. Free at the point of delivery. A Milestone for the Masses. When the Conservatives returned to power three years later, the rot set in - a small prescription charge towards the cost of ones medication. The sum was nominal at first, and for the Entire prescription. Under successive Conservative Governments it has not only increased above inflation, but the charge is now Per Item. The first steep increase came with Thatcher, despite her election promises of No Increase.
Thatcher’s Government destroyed the Miners Union, De-regulated Financial Svcs, sowed the seeds of Brexit and Jeremy Hunt was appointed as her Hatchet Man to the NHS. The doors were thrown open to the gradual incursion to “Medicine for Profit”, including multi level management consultancies and the introduction of tendering for contracts. Much of the money “intended” for medical care went to private pockets, ie,. those that pay little or no taxes. Meanwhile, treatment and operation waiting lists grew longer. And yes, It’s the same Jeremy Hunt who is now Sunak’s Chancelor…….
In 1982 the Conservatives rescinded the law on fair wages, creating a bonanza for the contractors via wage rate cuts, and via reductions in paid hours and staffing levels. Result - further degradation of Medical Care. There is a deliberate, massive shortage of money available for training infrastructure and forward planning. Every time a Conservative Government comes to power they ignore their duty to serve the people. We only have to look at the disaster of Covid to fully understand the callous indifference of Conservative Governments, who have betrayed the people. Again and Again. Remember that Boris Johnson’s stated attitude to Covid was “Let the Bodies Pile High”, whilst Tory cronies lobbied for, and won, supply contracts for sub standard “Personal Protective Equipment”….
The Health of the population is of less importance than the Wealth of the rulers. Reinstatement of the original Credo of the NHS will Never be the intention of the Conservatives. Healthcare should be FREE. To Democratise Healthcare, OUR Healthcare, we must first Democratise Parliament. Our votes are important, yet the voting system is seriously flawed….. For fifty years I have been hearing….. “I’m not going to vote - it makes no difference” Yet these have been the voices of the young, the uneducated, the less affluent, the very people who have the most to loose by this attitude. Is this attitude encouraged by a gutter press that’s owned by the wealthy ? Does the average school teach the importance of political awareness ? Can / does the internet re-educate the disenfranchised ?
We need to vote intelligently, responsibly, to get OUR NHS back from the greedy, but how is that to be achieved ? Personally I have serious doubts as to Sir Starmer Labour’s ability, or even desire, to make the necessary turnaround. May I thus recommend that the ideas of two organisations that offer solutions …… A) “Compass”, a breakaway Labor group calling for political activists to vote for candidates of integrity who put their constituents above parties. And B) “We Own It” who are challenging all political parties to commit to reinstating the NHS as a Fully Public, Not For Profit Service. So far they have produced a number of excellent articles and have already organised successful campaigns to the benefit of the many rather than the few.
Please, please do read the words of value from Compass & We Own It., Spread the message…
HEALTHCARE SHOULD BE FREE…. GLOBALLY !
YES!!! The health systems here in the USA needs some serious upgrading too. It is awful.
Thankyou my friend.