The NHS’s 70th birthday present should be a long, hard look in the mirror
The NHS is NOT a religion and we should not have love for it
THE best 70th birthday present the NHS could have today would be a radical rethink over its future.
The Sun has huge admiration for this central pillar of British life and its hundreds of thousands of dedicated staff, as our Who Cares Wins awards show.
We are proud our country has a safety net for all, regardless of income. What we don’t have is LOVE for it. It is not a religion. It is not too sacred to change.
It may surprise the Left, but other countries treat the sick too. None has copied our system — and some of theirs work better, especially in Europe.
Many people receive fantastic NHS treatment. Too many don’t. Some of its failures are grotesque national scandals, most recently in Gosport.
The NHS is second last out of 11 national systems for outcomes. It just isn’t that good at keeping patients alive.
Yes, it needs more funds — but it always does. There is no limit to what it can spend. There IS a limit to what sane Governments can afford.
You will never hear a word of criticism from Labour. The NHS is by far their best weapon. But their blinkered obsession is the major obstacle to improvement.
A cross-party Royal Commission could rethink it for a population far larger, older and fatter than in 1948. It might decide those who can afford it should pay to see a GP, as they already pay for prescriptions, dental care or eye tests. It might use more private health providers.
But it won’t happen.
Corbyn’s Labour will resist any meaningful change — and the Tories are terrified of them weaponising the NHS.
So they will just find billions more.
And unless the political deadlock can be broken, the NHS will just grind along in permanent crisis for another 70 years.
Nato in peril
WHATEVER you think of Donald Trump it’s hard to fault him on Nato.
Imagine being an American voter paying higher taxes because Europeans won’t properly fund their own defence against
Russian aggression. Only four other Nato members, including Britain, spend the target of two per cent of GDP.
It will be a disaster if the President undermines this pact, so crucial to global security. But the bill has to be split fairly.
Well played, Sir
OUR honours system dishes out baubles to useless political cronies. Why not knight a man who’s achieved something? Step forward, Sir Gareth Southgate.
No, we haven’t gone potty. We know football’s not coming home quite yet.
But isn’t it fantastic to have a bloke in charge of the national team with such brains and heart? And he and the boys have been great ambassadors in Russia.
We’ve had few better nights than Tuesday. And there are worse knights than Gareth.