A mother’s perspective on NHS cuts

By Gail McDade

Many people have many reasons to want to save our NHS: mine is my son Ryan.

Ryan was diagnosed with quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy when he was 10 months old.
Within a week of being diagnosed Ryan was allocated a physio and occupational therapist. Those therapists proved invaluable, from giving me and my husband advice to a shoulder to cry on and most importantly they gave Ryan the opportunity to live as healthy and happy a life as possible.

Our house is filled with equipment for Ryan. He has a manual and electric wheelchair, a standing frame, a supportive sleep system – the list goes on. Luckily for Ryan and our family, we received all of the necessary, life-enhancing equipment before last year’s general election.

Children’s physio and occupational therapists are the unsung heroes of our NHS. The work they do to ensure children with severe physical disabilities do not develop life threatening conditions such as pneumonia and scoliosis saves the NHS tens of millions of pounds annually and most importantly lets our young people maximise their quality of life.

Last month Ryan’s occupational therapist came to see him for the last time. She felt she could no longer work within the NHS now that her service has become so painfully underfunded. In a heart-wrenching explanation of why she felt moved to leave the NHS, she told how expertise was only useful to the children when it was accompanied by the equipment needed to carry out the treatment she knew they so desperately needed.

She is not the only therapist who feels like this.

Ryan’s physio is also considering resigning. Therapists are not being replaced when they leave the NHS, meaning that in Ryan’s case – typical of many others – physiotherapy visits have dropped in frequency from once a week to once every six weeks.

The families of disabled children often offer an easy target for the NHS cost-cutting. Quite frankly we’re usually too busy with our childcare duties and scouring what’s left of the care system for support to have the time or expertise to stand up for the vital services and NHS workers that our families rely on.

I joined the Labour Party because of the strides that the last Labour government made in improving our NHS. My son’s life chances have been improved immeasurably by the improvements made in our 13 years in office. But now I worry that those children and families that come after Ryan will face an uncertain future as this Tory-led government cuts vital services and personnel.

It’s for Ryan and thousands like him – and their families – that I will be joining with other Labour members and trade unionists to campaign for a rethink on the government’s ideologically-driven NHS reforms. I hope you will join with us too.