I just fisked Dan Han on the NHS! And it felt good!

By John Prescott

It’s been three days since I called on David Cameron to tell us whether he backs Dan Hannan’s attacks on the NHS. The sound of tumbleweed has been deafening – but the media seems to be picking up the story as each day goes by. And as each day goes by, Cameron’s silence condemns him even more.

But it seems Dan Hannan couldn’t resist justifying his remarks that the NHS was a “60 year mistake” by posting this on his blog at the Telegraph. (He’s loving this, isn’t he?)

Anyway, I thought I’d do a bit of what I’m told is called “fisking” of his blog – my bits are in the bold text.

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“It’s difficult not to warm to John Prescott. As part of a Labour Government that lived from headline to headline, he added a dash of authenticity. He may have been oafish, but he was reassuringly human.”

I’d rather be oafish and human than a right wing neocon anyday of the week. But thanks for the bank-handed compliment. And at least you didn’t call me Hitler.

“Prescott is trying to fabricate a row out of my interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, in which I warned Americans against adopting a socialist healthcare system along British lines. You can watch the old bruiser here. (If you’re an American who likes to imagine that the British are eloquent, please ignore that last hyperlink.)”

Fabricate a row? Describing the NHS as a “60 year mistake” and responsible for making people “iller” gave me a legitimate reason to question you. And your book The Plan gives me cause for even greater concern. You say you want to “allow patients to opt out of the NHS and instead pay their contributions into individual health accounts”. Sounds like you want to follow the US model of personal health insurance just as they’re trying to follow our system!

“I wonder whether anyone still falls for this sort of stuff. For a long time, Labour politicians had two slogans which they would trot out whenever healthcare came up: “Envy Of The World” and “Free At The Point Of Use”. These phrases were not intended to be arguments. Rather, they were ways of playing your trump, of closing down the debate.”

Your alternative is to leave people to their own devices. As you say in your book: “If there were some price mechanism in healthcare, people might make more effort to avoid developing conditions that require expensive cures.” That’s real Caring Conservatism isn’t it – ‘it’s your problem, sort youself out.’

“Prezza uses both (or, rather, a mangled version of each). The NHS, he says, is Britain’s “greatest creation”. Really? Greater than parliamentary democracy? Greater than penicillin? Greater than the discovery of DNA, or the abolition of slavery, or the common law?”

Funny that you mention the discovery of DNA and penicillin. Both great medical advances but you do need a National Health Service – free at the point of delivery and based on need, not the the ability to pay – to deliver them.

“John, the NHS produces some of the worst health outcomes in the industrialised world. Britain is the Western state where you’d least want to have cancer or a stroke or heart disease. Ours is now a country where thousands of people are killed in hospitals for reasons unrelated to their original condition. If this is our “greatest creation”, Heaven help us.”

Dan – you’re wrong. The respected Commonwealth Fund study found that the UK came top for patient safety in a study of six developed nations – the US came last. In a separate study on the figure of deaths of those aged under 75 that were preventable where did the US come? 19th. Out of 19.

And as Sunder Katwala points out on his excellent blog, a noted comparison study of health in the US and England, found: “US residents are much less healthy than their English counterparts and these differences exist at all points of the SES distribution.”

We invested £90 billion in the NHS since 1997. That meant 32,000 more doctors, 88,000 more nurses, over a hundred new hospitals, community health centres and the shortest waiting times since records began. In fact the NHS under Labour now saves 9,000 more lives a year from cancer and 31,000 lives a year from heart disease than it did in 1996.

The study YOU seem to be referring to was actually put together by a right wing think-tank. I think they might just have an agenda. As for people dying as a result of reasons unleated to their conditions – you’re alluding to MRSA and cdif here – rates of infection have been drastically declining. Oh, and remind me who forced hospitals to contract out cleaning services in the first place? Go on – it begins with T.

“As for the second slogan, which Prezza renders as “need and not ability to pay”, there is no health system in Europe or North America that leaves the indigent untended. What is at issue is not whether we force poor people to pay, but whether we prevent wealthier people from doing so. The British system treats everyone equally, it’s true: we queue equally, we wait weeks for operations equally, we are expected to be equally grateful for any attention we get.”

You’re calling for people to opt out of the NHS and manage their own health accounts. Madness. Have you looked at America? 75 million people have NO health insurance or are underinsured – that’s 42% of the population. Thankfully, 60 million in the UK have universal coverage. And since 2001, health insurance costs in the US have rocketed by 90% whilst wages went up by only 25%. Is that the ‘equality’ you’d like over here?

“Outside Westminster, the old incantations are losing their magic.”

I beg to differ. A recent independent survey found that ‘voters are more enthusiastic about the service provided by the NHS than at any time in the last 25 years (when the Tories started cuts). One in two people (51%) said they were satisfied with the NHS, compared with 34% in 1997 when Labour came to power and 42% in 2000 when the government embarked on a programme of health service reform. That’s a 50% increase since Labour came in. Those dissatisfied with the NHS dropped from 50% in 1997 to 30% – the lowest rating since 1984.

“Envy Of The World is no longer a charm to ward off criticism. People can see for themselves that Britain has become a place where foreigners fear to fall ill. Yes, all three parties are committed to the NHS: I am a humble backbencher, and speak only for myself. But I wonder whether, as on tax and borrowing, public opinion hasn’t overtaken the Westminster consensus.”

Well let’s find out. What was the conclusion of that report on the NHS? “It is hard to resist the conclusion that massively increased NHS spending over the last seven years, enabling [the service] to increase its staffing considerably and … reduce waiting times to their lowest since the inception of the NHS, must have played a significant part in boosting satisfaction.”

Let me put it like this. Imagine that, in 1945, we had created a National Food Service. Suppose that, in the name of “fairness” and “need and not ability to pay”, sustenance had been rationed by the state. Conjecture that every citizen had been allocated one butcher, one baker, one café and so on. We all know where that would have led: to bureaucracy, to duplication, to surpluses in one field and scarcity in another, to racketeering, to hunger. No one, not even Prescott, is suggesting that we socialise food distribution – even though food is at least as basic human need as healthcare. As those Americans of whom you seem so contemptuous might put it, John, go figure.”

Let me put it like this. Imagine that, in 1945 we hadn’t created a National Health Service. The Tories fought tooth and nail against it. In fact the Tories could have axed it. I remember well when the Conservatives took power in 1951, they set up a committee to review whether they should scrap the system and find alternatives ways of providing healthcare. But the academics, led by Claude Guillebaud found the NHS was efficient, cost-effective and deserved more money.

It seems 58 years on, you’re trying to start that debate again, Dan. But at least you bothered to reply. Now let’s see if your leader has the guts to come out and say whether he backs you or not. It seems his aides put all calls on this subject to the Tories in Brussels (how ironic!)

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Could it be that since neither Cameron or his Health Spokesman have commented on Hannan’s remarks, that this Eurosceptic MEP now speaks for the Tories on Health.

And it looks like we’ve a lot to fear of a Tory government. George Osborne said he’d probably scrap the pay deals for doctors, nurses and healthcare staff. But nevermind, because they want to bring back fox hunting.

The NHS means everything to this country. It’s a treasured national institution and Labour’s greatest triumph.

I’m not going to let this go, especially during the European Elections on June 4th (You’ll be seeing a lot more of me then!)

So come on Cameron – no dithering.

Will you back him or sack him?