The Decline of the NHS

The decline of the NHS is not a problem, it is a strategy. There is only one way to reverse it. 

Scotland’s ‘allowance,’ what we get back after we turn over all our money to the Treasury, is tied to the UK Government’s underspending on health and other public services.

Scotland’s superior NHS performance is due to the retention of integrated health boards and the higher per capita health spending. But when England’s NHS is starved of funding, so is Scotland’s. So, although our health service hasn’t yet failed, if we continue to be part of the UK, it will.

The performance of England's NHS significantly worsened during Jeremy Hunt’s six-years as health secretary. Missed targets, longer waits, crumbling hospitals, lower staff morale and reduced funding were the hallmarks of his tenure.  The annual ‘winter crisis’ morphed into a year-round crisis.

 The number of hospital beds fell as did cancer referrals and planned operations, treatments were curtailed, hospitals were closed, land was sold off and privatisation of crucial services continued apace. And Hunt was masterful at evading accountability, blaming and patients and staff for government failures.[1]

He stopped publishing weekly A&E data when targets were being routinely missed[2] and refused to answer parliamentary questions and Freedom of Information about which private companies were receiving NHS money.[3]Promises of a ‘Brexit dividend’ were hollow. 

Public satisfaction with the English NHS fell[4] during Hunt’s tenure and maternal deaths at childbirth[5] and infant mortality worsened.[6] Most damning is that since 2015, UK life expectancy has fallen by more than a year.[7]

Now that Chancellor Hunt is implementing austerity 2.0, Scotland must get serious about restoring its sovereignty.

Leah Gunn Barrett

08/01/23

[1] https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/jeremy-hunt-tory-leadership-boris-johnson-nhs-junior-doctors/

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39056969

[3] https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/shine-a-light/what-is-g4s-doing-in-englands-nhs/

[4] https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/public-satisfaction-nhs-social-care-2018

[5] https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2018-11-01-more-action-needed-prevent-maternal-deaths-across-uk

[6] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/15/concern-at-rising-infant-mortality-rate-in-england-and-wales

[7] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/07/life-expectancy-slumps-by-five-months