My fears for the NHS

By Jean Butcher

My fears for the NHS are that it will lose the ethos and the guiding principles that it was founded on 63 years ago: healthcare, accessible to all, free at the point of delivery.

Once hospitals can see as many private patients as they like, people with money will be able to leap- frog to the front of the queue and the waiting times for the rest of us will shoot up. The NHS is about need, not the ability to pay, and we must keep it that way.

I have seen certain areas of the health service become privatised, such as domestic porters outsourced, which created a two-tier workforce. At my local hospital, the birthing unit was shut down, and midwifes were very concerned for the safety of pregnant mums and the unborn child.

Hospitals have to make savings of 4%, but some are going further, making even bigger cuts. People with non-terminal illnesses are having to wait longer for their operations. Hip operations and knee replacements may not kill, but they do torture. Longer waiting lists affect the quality of so many people’s lives.

We’re all now living longer, but instead of celebrating this fact, elderly people are made to feel like they are a burden to our society. I am a grandmother, and I want the best NHS for my grandchildren, but I am very worried about what this government is doing. I believe it wants to privatise large chunks and ask people to pay for treatments. This is fine for the rich, but it is ordinary people who will be left to suffer in pain.

I’m also worried about the idea of healthcare being spread across hundreds of different companies. My priority as a patient is receiving good quality care somewhere local, not having a choice about where to go. Breaking up the NHS into smaller parts is bound to make care better in some areas than other, and will surely only create more paperwork and red tape. Why make things so complicated?

The NHS is one of Labour’s biggest achievements, but it seems the old adage is true – you can’t trust the Tories with the NHS. That is why I am campaigning against the Health Bill as a health professional, a grandmother and as patient myself.

On the Big NHS Weekend on 3rd and 4th September, I’ll be out on my local high streets talking to people about what’s happening, and urging my MP to vote against the Bill on its third reading.

Jean Butcher is a carer in the NHS.