NHS Nurse: ‘We now face a full scale battle to save the NHS’

The following comes to LabourList from an NHS nurse who wishes to remain anonymous:

I work in an outpatients department. We have seen in the last 14 years a cycle of investment from 1997 to the current reduction in spending in the NHS.

We saw reduced waiting times, the gratitude of patients who have seen the end of long waits for surgery under the previous Conservative government to the incredible, initial referral to ‘knife to skin in 18 weeks’ under the Labour government.

Alright we began to work to artificial targets that many of us disagreed with but they were targets that patients could understand and gave them the quick results and treatment they craved.

In just 12 short months since the last general election we have swung full circle. Patients breaching, wards shutting, staff shed and morale at an all time low and we face another 4 years of this before we can try to vote this unelected coalition out of office.

We now face a full scale battle to save the NHS. I am fiercely proud of the organisation I work for. I believe that all, regardless of means to pay, deserve a world class healthcare system. This is now in threat. Slowly pieces are being syphoned off into the private sector and we will be left with what is unprofitable. I am sure this is the Tories long term plan.

I am not denying questions have to be asked, it’s time for a grown up debate about the NHS. What do we want as a country? Free healthcare at the point of delivery for all, regardless of ability to pay? If so how do we pay for it? What we are seeing now is not that grown up debate. It is cuts and damage by stealth to the NHS, that is probably irreversible. All from a coalition that has no mandate to do this.

Its time for all those who hold the NHS dear to stand up and be counted, let your views be known.

‘Society becomes more wholesome, more serene, and spiritually healthier, if it knows that its citizens…have access, when ill, to the best that medical skill can provide.’ – Aneurin Bevan, 1942