Why all this misery in an institution so dear to British hearts? Why has that bright emblem of post-war Britain-classless, efficient, humane-become the NHS of waste, waiting lists and grannies on trolleys?
There is nothing so conservative as a failed socialist system. The ideal is so noble-the provision of all healthcare for all people, for free, in state-owned institutions-that to dismantle it requires qualities lacking in politicians thinking of the next election: the intellectual power to convince the public of what is needed, and great practical understanding of how to get the job done safely. It has always proved easier simply to increase the spending, tinker at the edges and hope the problems disappear in time.
The failure of the political class to spell out what everyone who has studied the matter, left or right, knows is wrong with the NHS-its status as a super-nationalised monopoly-is an enduring betrayal of the electorate. Because politicians lack the courage to explain what “the NHS” is, and what its alternative-privatisation, or mutualisation, or liberalisation, or whatever you call it-might look like, the public is left bemused, but believing two things deeply: NHS “good,” privatisation “bad.” This attitude urgently needs to change if healthcare is to improve.
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