NHS crisis - WE are the problem

As can often be expected, we reach mid-January, winter has hardly begun to show its mettle, and yet we are bombarded with messages of gloom and doom about the state of the NHS.

There can be no doubt that life for those working at the sharp end in the NHS has been tough for some time, and that those of us who have need of its services often find we are ‘let down’.

Whilst on the surface I am inclined to agree with Theresa May’s assertion that recent comments by the Red Cross, referring to the NHS as facing a ‘humanitarian crisis’, as being ‘irresponsible and overblown’, a closer look at the widely accepted definition of a humanitarian crisis - ‘a singular event or a series of events that are threatening in terms of health, safety or well-being of a community or large group of people’, then they are in fact spot on.

What the rest of us must do, as we try to keep our heads down to avoid the mud-slinging that inevitably occurs, is step back a little to consider the facts of the situation and move away from the hysterical hyperbole.

When the NHS was formed in 1948 our population was 47 million, it now hovers around the 65 million mark, a 38% increase. Added to this is the increase in life expectancy, which on average has risen by over 10 years. Most of us can, under normal circumstances, now expect to reach the ripe old age of 81.

On top of all this, as is well known, advances in medical technology and know-how mean that many of the illnesses that in the past would have caused premature death can now be detected earlier, and treated; at a cost.

We may agree that the NHS has been woefully underfunded in recent years and is no longer fit for purpose in its current form, but we have all been complicit in this. It is not rocket science to expect that treating many more people for longer, with more complex illnesses, requiring higher levels of expertise and costly equipment will in the end bust the budget.

The constant bleating refrain of low wages and long hours is tiresome. Staff are not press ganged into selecting the NHS as an organisation in which to work, and whilst I do have some sympathy, there are many of us in other industries also having to work our socks off in less than satisfactory working environments. As sad as it may seem, it is a common ailment of modern day life.  

There is clearly a huge gap between what we expect and what the NHS can afford to provide. To blame the government is to take too simplistic a view of the situation. Contrary to the belief of some, money does not grow on trees. If we, the general public, users of the NHS, want to a have a first-class service then we will just have to pay for it, it is as simple as that.  

My own runs ins with the NHS are well recorded, but, as unsatisfactory as it may be for people to be left on trolleys in hospital corridors, I would argue that if they can be left for hours on end, without suffering any harm, then how ill were they, and should they have been in A&E to start with?

There comes a point at which we must all take collective responsibility for the current state of the NHS, and its imperfections.