You really have to wonder what it’s like in the world of a Tory minister. It’s evidently a place where nobody has to rely on a public service. David Cameron’s gratitude to the NHS for treating his son Ivan, frequently repeated in the run up to the election, seems to have been conveniently forgotten.
First we have Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s director of ‘strategy’ (for which his qualification are…ummm…I’ll have to get back to you on that one), suggesting the abolition of maternity leave, job centres and consumer rights legislation.
Then Oliver Letwin claiming public sector workers need more ‘fear and discipline’ (how about a spot of whipping?). Thanks for that, boys - if that’s the direction of travel, we’ll soon be opening workhouses again. Let’s admit this government is devoid of intelligent ideas for deficit reduction, or indeed, any grasp on the realities of life for the majority who don’t have a trust fund and didn’t go to Eton.
Then we have the Cooperation and Competition Panel doing what it was set up to do - clobbering the NHS and cosying up to the private sector. Its report last week claims that PCT’s are unfairly giving work to local hospitals, and restricting access for elective surgery to save money.
Making patients wait for treatment, we’re told, is designed expressly to force those who can afford it to go privately. Not only that - those wicked managers are hoping that many others will tidy themselves off the waiting list by dying before they finally get an op date. With breathtaking hypocrisy, the government piles in with expressions of horror, completely ignoring the reason why PCT’s are so desperate to save money. It’s a shame PCTs are so strapped for cash that they can’t treat CCP members to the same corporate entertainment package that lobbyists from the private healthcare industry recently did, according to a report in The Guardian. It was obviously be money well spent.
What the government also fails to acknowledge, is that this was always the plan - i.e. to force NHS waiting lists to increase so that the private sector is able to ride in and save the day - patients will either pay privately, or demand an alternative provider. And this is before the Health and Social Care Bill has even become law.
For a politician, political expedience trumps compassion and humanity every time, especially if you yourself have full BUPA coverage. We only need to look at America to see what happens when leaders are desperate to balance the books - states are cutting Medicaid coverage drastically, causing unimaginable suffering. We might almost suspect that our own government cares more about the welfare of private health companies than it does about the welfare of ordinary citizens. What a surprise.
Tories are very fond of lecturing us about reducing the deficit so that our children and grandchildren aren’t burdened by our debts - all very laudable, but at this rate, we’re creating a country so awful that our children, should anyone be able to afford to have them, won’t want to stay here anyway.
