Universal, free medicine was introduced after the Second World War by Labor Prime Minister Clement Atlee, after defeating Churchill, and was one of the things the British left was most proud of. For conservatives, however, it has become a monster that gobbles up more and more money, to the point – they say – that the United Kingdom is no longer a State with public healthcare, but rather a public healthcare with a State as an appendix. .
Both admit that it does not work, although they offer different solutions, ranging from increasing taxes to provide it with more funds (the left) to partially or totally privatizing it and introducing a co-payment formula (the right). But its reform is not easy, because more than an institution it is a religion, a taboo, a cult.
On the verge of collapse every winter, every time respiratory diseases arrive, now its crisis has worsened with the six-day strike of 46,000 resident doctors (in training) that began yesterday and will last until Tuesday of the week that comes, forcing the postponement of more than a million operations that were scheduled (the waiting list is eight million), and delaying treatments for cancer and other diseases. Experts consider unnecessary deaths to be inevitable.
It is the tenth strike by residents in the last thirteen months and the longest in three quarters of a century, with the loss of thirty-four days of work so far. The Government refuses to meet their demand for a 35% salary increase, which compensates for the 26% deterioration of their purchasing power in real terms since the 2008 financial crisis. The “negotiable” counteroffer of 8.8% has once again been rejected, and the Minister of Health, Victoria Atkins, demands his return to work as a prerequisite for resuming dialogue. They earn 18 euros per hour, which translates into annual income of between 48,000 and 80,000 euros with full dedication.
The new mantra of Labour, favorite to win the next election, is to put emphasis on prevention rather than treatment, and reduce smoking and obesity, which is estimated to cost the State €120 billion a year (two thirds of British people are overweight). But apart from that, Keir Starmer would be under pressure to inject funds to reduce the waiting list for operations.
The problem is that the NHS (National Health Service) is a bottomless pit. In the last four years it has received 20% more money, but even so treatments have decreased by 5%, and the new resources have not been dedicated to hiring doctors and nurses and improving their salaries, or to creating more hospital beds, but to management, public relations, promoting inclusion, anti-discrimination campaigns... Brexit and poor working conditions have caused many workers to leave the sector, completely burned out. To survive, British public health resorts to the neocolonial practice of recruiting employees in Commonwealth countries to replace those from the European Union who have returned home, since the natives do not want to know anything about cleaning wounds, washing patients or caring for the elderly, a serious structural problem.
The British health budget is larger than education, transport, defense and home affairs combined, but it still demands more every year just to stay afloat. A world reference, it has become one of the most deficient. The next government will be expected to fix it, an almost impossible mission.
