The public’s view of the NHS at 75
Above all, the health service makes people proud to be British, more than a) our history b) our culture c) our system of democracy d) the royal family. Also, the NHS being free at the point of use, affordable and paid for via tax is the aspect that make people (55% of respondents) most proud. So despite the real Tory opinion of a health service being free and paid for by general taxation, we, the people believe in the NHS.

Doctors think Tories want to destroy the NHS
The NHS is in a state of “managed decline” because recent governments had made “a conscious political decision” to deny it adequate resources or tackle staff shortages. So said BMA chairman Professor Philip Banfield. “Most frontline medics believe ministers are seeking to destroy the NHS because they have starved it of cash and mistreated its staff.

Why not bring it in-house?
The government has issued a tender for private firms to run the NHS Supply Chain, which was privatised by the Coalition government in 2006. Read here the reasons for the Covid PPE catastrophe and why  ithe NHS Supply Chain needs to be brought into public ownership.

Kings Fund: NHS versus other countries
The NHS was compared to the health systems of similar countries. The UK has below-average health spending per person compared to other countries, it lags behind in its capital investment and has substantially fewer key physical resources, including computerised tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners and hospital beds. The UK has strikingly low levels of doctors and nurses, and is heavily reliant on foreign-trained staff.

Former Public Health England boss …
At the Covid enquiry, Duncan Selbie who was chief executive of PHE said the Treasury insisted on cuts to public health to allow spending on the general NHS to increase. Public health took the hit for Treasury demands for cuts.  The grant for these services was reduced by 14 per cent in real terms in the six years running up to 2021.