Why you need to speak to someone who works in the NHS

I'm not asking you to just believe what I write here (even though I've backed it all up with links to evidence). 

I'm not asking you to believe Jeremy Corbyn when he says that our NHS needs to be saved from the Tories, and their wanton ideological vandalism of it.

I'm asking you to speak to someone who works in the NHS to ask them about a number of specific issues.

Almost everyone knows someone who works for the NHS. 

Everyone knows someone who knows someone who works in the NHS.

If you have to ask a mutual friend to introduce you to an NHS worker so you can meet them for a coffee/beer and chat about the issues facing the NHS, I'm sure they wouldn't mind at all. 

In fact they'd probably be very happy to meet someone who shows some actual interest in their work and working conditions.

Some of the issues to ask about:

• Ask them how they think the £20 billion in NHS cuts between 2010 and 2015 affected the quality of care the NHS could offer, and how another £22 billion in NHS cuts is affecting the quality of care the NHS can offer now.

• Ask them how they feel about the way the Tories introduced new rules to make it much easier for them to force the closure of NHS services without taking the views of local people or staff into consideration.

• Ask them whether waiting list times and record waiting times at A&E departments have been rising, and whether they agree with the Tory policy of simply scrapping any waiting list targets that are being missed and scrapping the four hour A&E target instead of actually doing anything to address the dreadful problems they've created.

• Ask them whether they think Theresa May's decision to scrap NHS bursaries had anything to do with the 31% decline in applications for nursing courses, and the shortfall of an astounding 70,000 nurses in the NHS, and whether they think the NHS recruitment crisis will get even worse as the supply of new nurses slumps dramatically as fewer and fewer new nurses enter the system.

• Ask them about NHS privatisation and how ever more NHS services being carved up and given away to profiteering private sector health companies like Serco, Virgin Health and (the major Tory party donors) Circle, reaching an all-time record of £9.2 billion worth of NHS privatisation in 2018.

• Ask them how they feel about the years of below inflation pay rises for NHS staff whilst MPs bagged a whopping great 10% pay rise for themselves.

• Ask them how they feel about the Tories' £4.6 billion cut in the social care budget, and what kind of effect that is having on the already overstretched hospitals that are having to pick up the pieces.

• Ask them whether the junior doctors were treated fairly and with respect during their confrontation with then-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

• Ask them whether Jeremy Hunt's comments that people should just Google their health symptoms instead of seeking medical advice was a risk to public health.

• Ask them whether they share Theresa May's view that Jeremy Hunt was "an excellent health secretary".

• Ask them if they actually know anyone working in the NHS who has confidence in the pompous liar that Boris Johnson has put in charge now (Matt Hancock).

• Ask them about the £3 billion wasted on the massive 2012 top down reorganisation of the NHS that the Tories repeatedly promised not to do before they sneaked back into power in 2010.

• Ask them how they feel about the scores of A&E units, maternity wards, mental health facilities and NHS walk in centres that have been shut down by the Tories since 2010, and whether these closures have markedly increased demand elsewhere in the NHS.

• Ask them about the secret plans the Tories drew up to close even more A&E units, maternity wards and walk in centres.

• Ask them if their own primary care trust is in deficit.

• Ask them how they feel about the Tories going on about how much they care about mental health issues as they simultaneously slash the mental health budget and instruct their outsourcing contractors to specifically discriminate against people with mental health conditions.
  
• Ask them if they know any EU citizens who work in the NHS and whether they have left, or are thinking of leaving because of the threat of a ruinous Tory hard Brexit.
  
• Ask them whether the 92% decline in the number of NHS nurses arriving from EU countries is likely to exacerbate the NHS recruitment crisis.
  
• Ask them how they feel about the Chairman of Conservative Health saying that the only way the Tories could bring in charging for NHS services is if there was a feeling in the country that the NHS is "falling apart". and whether the ongoing crisis in the NHS might actually be part of a deliberate Tory strategy to bring the days of universal health care to an end.

• Ask them whether they feel that their colleagues are ever more stressed and overworked as they try to cope with increasing demand for services while funding and staffing levels are slashed year after year.

• Ask them whether they think the NHS can actually survive if the Tories carry on like this.

 Another Angry Voice  is a "Pay As You Feel" website. You can have access to all of my work for free, or you can choose to make a small donation to help me keep writing. The choice is entirely yours.

OR