Dear Tory MPs of Yorkshire and Rishi Sunak PM,
We are living with a time bomb that you and your government have created for us, the people of UK, through your policies that risk fatally undermining our taxpayer-funded healthcare system. And, in case you were wondering, an invitation to the 4 July celebrations of its 75th anniversary at Westminster Abbey in no way makes up for this failure to support and safeguard the NHS.
Long waiting lists lead to family anguish
In my own family, we are currently living in the shadow of NHS wait lists for treatment – or possibly a funeral. Imagine yourselves in our shoes: a family member with third stage cancer, having made it through the chemotherapy stage and now waiting in the holding chemotherapy bay for curative surgical cancer treatment. The NHS Cancer Treatment Service has been compassionate and excellent at every point. But she and we have no idea when the curative surgery will take place.
Do we plan for her funeral, or will she be here for the christening of her first grandchild at the end of year? Only you and your minister of health hold the answer to this question as you withhold the resources and measures to support the funding of our tax-paid NHS. Only we and many other British people in the same situation around the UK know the pain, the anguish of your failed duty of care. Cruelty and lack of compassion, not unlike that seen in eastern dictatorships.
Staggering lack of staff in primary care
GP practices’ lack of staff is staggering.
Of the eight GPs in one regional practice: one has severe workload mental health issues and is on suicide watch 24/7; one amazing GP, mid-thirties, is in end-of-life care due to cancer; one GP’s wife has been diagnosed with cancer; and one has recently been found to have a neck tumour and a practice nurse has a new diagnosis of breast cancer. Then, there are the health and stress-related issues among the other clinical staff and support staff. They are all committed to best provision of care in a challenged area.
Replacements for all these people are simply not out there. Tory economic policies over recent years have ensured that the NHS workforce with all its experience and skill is being reduced to an emaciated skeleton.
Other countries robbed of medics while our own move abroad
Nowadays, in order to fill increasing numbers of vacant posts, you rob other health care systems around the world, bringing in doctors from Sudan, West Africa and Pakistan, and taking nurses from India and the Philippines. Currently 80% of some GPs in training programmes in the UK are international doctors. The data is all there as evidence, with medical services in these countries despairing at the loss of the medical and health graduates they desperately need to care for their own people.
Meanwhile, our own graduates from the UK health care training programmes are leaving for better pay and conditions in countries such as Australia and New Zealand. What could be done to persuade them to stay? Rescind most of their grant debt and pay them what they are worth. You pay them less than the average North Yorkshire domestic help at £16.00/ hour.
Funds for fair NHS pay do exist
You actually do have the funds to pay the NHS staff, as you gave a 10% rise in the NHS pension in April 2023. You chose to do this action and NOT pay our consultants, junior doctors, radiographers, nurses and other staff a decent rise to reward their sacrifice and commitment in all our time of need in the Covid pandemic. You continue to refuse to negotiate with NHS staff to address their economic needs.
The NHS pension rise could have been addressed differently; most NHS pensioners would likely have supported the current staff’s economic needs with a reduced rise in pension income this year. We would have forsaken such a large rise for the greater good; although, had you offered any such spending pledges, we would have found it hard to trust them.
Also, you might try asking the British people, who will certainly be willing to pay more for the NHS via suitable fair means when they learn that 500,000 US citizens filed for bankruptcy last year due to debt from health care bills.
No more lies
Let’s have no more lies, no more pretence that your current actions have the best interests and real health needs of people of the UK at heart. Commit to the NHS, acknowledge the role of fair pay in solving staffing issues, and take a proper leadership role in ensuring and allocating adequate funding.
You’ve set the time bomb ticking but you can also switch it off.
Frances Cole,
(Anguished of Ripon)
