The NHS crisis has been dominating our headlines for months now. The current strike action from nurses and ambulance workers, with junior doctors also warning of possible action, has put the situation into sharp focus. Systematic underfunding by the Conservative government has brought the NHS to its knees and patients and staff are suffering the results.
The public are rightly worried, with many avoiding getting necessary medical attention for fear of what they will encounter in hospital. On 3 January, Linda Green posted on Twitter that she was so concerned about the NHS crisis that she wrote to her MP, Philip Davies, “asking him to urge the government to act, particularly on social care”. She was so disgusted by his response that she posted it on Twitter, asking that voters in Bingley, Saltaire and Shipley in particular take note, and remember this when it comes to the next general election.
Ms Green said:
“I was appalled that Mr Davies should try to claim that running the NHS is not the government’s responsibility and that he should treat NHS staff, who are working hard to care for patients in hugely difficult circumstances, with such utter contempt. I firmly believe that politicians should be held accountable and not be allowed to get away with lying and passing the buck.”
Open letter to Philip Davies
The many glaring untruths in Philip Davies’ reply to Ms Green, make it worth a fuller response. Because this cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. So this is my open letter to Philip Davies, MP for Shipley.
Dear Mr Davies,
I try to avoid responding to rants from clearly bellicose people; but as Mr Davies is an MP, I feel a duty to at least correct the record for the sake of his poor constituents.
In your letter to Ms Green you stated, “The government’s job is to fund the NHS”. Wrong. It is much more than that. The Lansley reforms in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 recklessly removed government responsibility for the health of citizens. However, the health secretary retains ultimate responsibility for the provision of the health service in England – with a particular focus on financial control and oversight of all NHS delivery and performance. (Clause 2 was inserted into the act by the Lords, and introduces a new duty for the secretary of state to act with a view to securing continuous quality improvement in services provided by the NHS).
Yet you blame the staff.
You say, “Spending on the NHS has increased by 40% over and above inflation since 2010”. Wrong. Research by The Nuffield Trust Health shows that spending in England per person prior to 1997 averaged 2.1%. Between 1997 and 2010, under a Labour government, average health spending was 5.7% a year. But in the decade leading up to the pandemic, health spending rose by an average of 0.4% a year, and in some years it actually fell. While spending has risen since the pandemic, this still only brings the average increase since 2010 to 0.5%.
Yet you blame the staff.
NHS management
You say, “The NHS is appalling run, with far too many overpaid and utterly useless senior managers who wouldn’t be able to get a similar job in the private sector”. Wrong. This is not the cause of the crisis. These senior managers are having to manage a broken system designed by the Hunt appointee, Simon Stevens, who put re-organising the NHS on a USA model ahead of proper staffing, training, while, most seriously, neglecting social care.
One of the main reasons for bed delays arises in social care where there are not enough staff to install the care packages for the returners. Issues surrounding bed capacity are compounded further by discharge delays caused by pressures in social care. Up to one in three English hospital beds are occupied by patients who are medically fit to be discharged, but remain in hospital as there is no space for them in social care. This issue highlights the importance of properly funding both health and social care systems so that they can effectively work together. How do you ‘manage’ that? You cannot.
Yet you blame the staff.
Real public spending on social care fell by 1% between 2009–10 and 2015–16. Within this time, spending on adult social care fell by 6.4%, during a period when the population aged 65 and above grew by 15.6%. Costs trebled as bed delays increased. This was nothing to do with the staff! It was the Conservative government’s Treasury policy to cut costs that is responsible. The staff are demoralised, utterly overworked and now leaving the industry.
Yet you blame the staff.
Conservative policy has caused this
To rub salt in the wounds, George Osborne removed the nurses training bursary in 2016. This resulted in a shortfall of 13,000 applications for degree courses and 40,000 unfilled positions. In 2019, Boris Johnson had to climb down and reverse the bursary policy. But the damage had been done. Today there are 50,000 vacancies at a time of a major national health crisis.
Yet you blame the staff.
You say the NHS is, “wasteful, bureaucratic and run for the convenience of people who work for the NHS (especially consultants and GPs)”. Wrong. You, sir, traduce them. You need retract that right now.
As an altruistic kidney donor in 2013 I spent a year in the hands of consultants, renal experts, doctors and nurses preparing me for a serious operation. I have never felt more confident in the outcome. As a result, a girl in the Midlands has had a new lease of life. The NHS saves over £30,000 a year on dialysis, and I am fit and well at the age of 80.
We employ the brightest and best in our NHS. I cannot say that for our politicians.
You refer to the “vast number of senior managers”. Wrong. As counted by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, managers in the NHS comprise 4% of the workforce, compared with 10% in the UK economy as a whole.
Patient care
Your response to Ms Green contained only one correct statement, suggesting that the NHS “concentrates on patient care”. What a novel idea! Please tell that to your Cabinet colleagues who have designed the wrong system to do that and who have starved them, not only of funding, but of vital staffing, planning and resourcing.
Now, please take a knee and apologise to every NHS employee, and take back your thoughtless, hurtful words.
