‘Comprehensive. Equal. Free.’
On Thursday I had two interviews. One was a podcast, and the other a live event where I spoke to a group of people concerned about the state of the NHS and who wanted to know more. During both interviews the same question came up; why do I tell people that our public healthcare system is collapsing? Things are very bad, they agreed, it might be difficult to get a GP appointment quickly now, or there might be a long wait in A&E, but the service is still there.
They’re right of course, because we have most of the same infrastructure we’ve had for decades - the same hospitals, the same GP surgeries, the same NHS logos on doors and signs and letterheads. The same teams exist, and if we need specialist input, we’re referred to those teams by our GPs, for an assessment or a scan or an operation. The component parts of the service exist as they ever have done.Â