Time for life saving reforms to the NHS

As the nation braces for a 48-hour strike by nurses over the early May bank holiday, as well as the possibility of co-ordinated industrial action, the growing militancy of the trade unions is an unwelcome echo of the 1970s. Some may sympathise with front-line NHS workers calling for a pay rise. Yet at a time when the cost of living crisis is hitting every household, unrealistic pay demands that hold the rest of us hostage are insupportable.

How have we ended up in a situation where the whole country is increasingly uncertain whether it will be able to access medical care? The unions’ claims that these strikes do not jeopardise people’s health are surely laughable. But even when staff are at work, the NHS is increasingly incapable of delivering the standard of care that people expect.

Yet politicians still refuse to accept the cause of this disaster: the unreformed nature of the NHS itself. As it stands, in the absence of yet more massive tax rises, the wages of doctors and nurses cannot increase without less being spent on patient treatment. Moreover, it does not seem to matter how many extra billions are thrown at the health service: patient outcomes never seem to improve. Productivity has collapsed. Only a nationalised, taxpayer-funded system impervious to reform could swallow so much money, talent and hard work with so little to show for it. Will any politician ever be brave enough to admit it?