Fast approaching its 60th birthday, the NHS is at a crossroads.
We have seen 10 years of heavy investment under Labour – desperately needed after years of chronic Conservative neglect. However, the money came with a merry go round of reform, throwing the service into disarray as staff and patients struggled to cope with constant restructuring.
So, although spending on health has now hit the European average, cancer and stroke survival rates in the UK are still poor compared to much of Europe, while health inequalities have actually widened under Labour. The diagnosis is clear: the centralised state has poorly served the worst off, the very people who need help most of all.
The Tories solution is to reduce accountability even further by creating an unelected quango to control our health service, which would ultimately have the power to close local hospitals. And should we ever really trust the Conservatives to maintain funding for health and social care – particularly given that the priority they chose at their conference last October was a massive cut in inheritance tax for million pound estates?
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The Joy of Six 1556
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