A call to arms to protect the NHS.

There would be no Breaking Bad in the UK .... that may be or may not be good NHS propaganda!

This comes as my first post of 2014 - and I feel like it's important that this is a message that gets out there.

Nye Bevan (1897 - 1960) Labour Health minister 1945 - 1951, MP for Ebbw Vale 1929 - 1960
Clement Attlee (1883 - 1967) Labour Prime Minister 1945 - 1951, MP for Limehouse 1922 - 1950

In 1948 Aneurin Bevan (Health Minister) in Clement Attlee's Labour Government founded the NHS, a fantastic institution. I wont bore you all with my opinions, you can read them here! But suffice to say I am a massive supporter of the NHS, the principle that health care is free at the point of access is brilliant and I can't comprehend anyone who doesn't support that.

Nor do I understand the Tory party's decision to systematically dismantle the NHS, and what I understand even less is our decision as a nation to just sit back and let them!

Now, for those of you who either aren't into politics, or who aren't from the UK and into our politics, here is Nurse P's fun fact file before we kick off!

• All hospital & GP's surgery's  are free to attend and free to get treatments from.
  
  Everything from cancer treatment to antibiotics, from heart attacks to freezing off warts!
•  Eye check ups and glasses are free or subsidised (dependent on the price of the frames usually) for all children, those on benefits, those in full time education and retired individuals.
• Dental care is subsidised by the NHS, you will be charged a one-off fee of either £18, £49 or £214 dependent on the treatment required and regardless of how many appointments it will take to complete the job.
• The Tory party (the right wing Conservative party) are currently in power, on a technicality, in a coalition government with the Lib-Dems (the central Liberal-Democrats) in the 2010 General Election.
  At the time they promised that in all the cut back that they would make they would not touch the NHS and that NHS budgets would be ring-fenced. That has not happened.  

  

  Cameron's election campaign in 2010

• The Tory party are BIG fans of privitising public services!
  
  1979 - British Petrolium (BP)
  1983 - Associated British Ports
  1984 - British Telecom (BT)
  1986 - British Gas
  1989 - Water
  1994 - British Rail
  2013 - Royal Mail
  
  (A brief list - and completely non comprehensive!)
• The NHS is being systematically broken up and sold off to the highest bidder.

Post being (almost) elected - Cameron's election posters were ... improved!

So - that is my simple fact file, and they are all facts. Even the Tories fully admit what they're doing ... well behind closed doors that is! And not only are they trying to break apart our NHS they are doing it with the

help of an orchestrated media campaign. The media oligarchs who run the right wing press in the UK are intent on informing us how shit the NHS is, how we have no-choice but to opt for privatisation if we want a functioning health service.

Case in point here is a selection of headlines collected from the British tabloids. And as you can see, they are pretty determined to make our National Health Service seem as poor as possible so that the inevitable introduction of a pay as go system.

I've said before and I'll say again, the NHS is not perfect, it is full of problems and needs work to keep it alive and working well. However at it's core is a really important principle and it's one that we as a nation need to defend and look after and protect because it's a brilliant thing that we should be proud of.

So this is my call to arms, to protect the NHS - lets not let it go like we've let the others go. Please, lets fight - because we should be furious and angry and we should be on the streets screaming them down and fighting for our right to health care free at the point of access.

A clip from BBC Radio 4's News Quiz