I haven't blogged for a long time. However the upcoming election is making me feel very unhappy as so many people recently have said to me that they don't believe Jeremy Corbyn is capable of running the country. In the end, I don't think that's the issue. The issue is, do we want the Conservatives to throw the NHS and all it stands for away? I don't think we do.Jeremy Corbyn's policies are what people should be looking at. And the major item at a crossroads in this election is not Brexit but the NHS. The tories have been starving the NHS of money in many ways at once. They have made the NHS use commercial contracts for services which were traditionally provided by local hospitals, which in some cases seems to have replaced a working system with nothing at all. People are complaining that having waited six months for a paediatric appointment they have been left in a no-man's land when Virgin healthcare have taken over the supply of services.
Through the magic of corporate accounting, Virgin Care doesn't just make no profit, but actually makes a loss, and thus doesn't pay any tax in the UK.
The government are treating health services the way they are treated in the USA, as a commodity or a product, as though the long experience of dealing with a patient or trying different therapies with a consultant is worthless.
Taking contracts and money away from hospitals so that a service can be run by a for-profit company also takes money and flexibility away from hospital managers.
If you care about the NHS and its future as a free-for-all health service you cannot vote Conservative. That's all.
