I was born on the day the NHS was created - now I fear for its future

This blog is written by NHS patient and Just Treatment supporter Gerald Harniman. 

I was born at home on 5th July 1948 - the same day that the National Health Service began. 

The NHS has been there for me throughout my entire life. During childhood I faced issues with my feet and other broken limbs. Later on I had to have a heart valve replacement, and I also had treatment for bladder cancer. In all of these scenarios the wonderful free care I received from NHS staff meant that I could continue living happily and healthily; something that older generations before me were not able to experience.

As both I and the NHS mark our 75th birthdays, I feel thankful for what the NHS has done for myself and so many others, but I also feel deeply concerned by the current state of our health service and how it’s being treated by those in power.

For years I have seen how politicians have sought to underfund, fragment and even destroy the NHS. It is barely surviving - and how long will it last? Up until 2010 it was regarded as one of the best health systems in the world. 13 years later and we’ve got over 7 million patients waiting for care, and exhausted and underpaid staff leaving in their thousands. 

Yet there are some who are doing very well from this crisis. Private healthcare providers who are being paid to take over increasing numbers of NHS services have made millions from patients’ ill health, even as quality of care continues to decline. This is just one part of a wider political agenda to prioritise corporate profits above people’s health and lives. 

This agenda has also seen giant pharmaceutical companies rake in billions from medical tools created from public research, whilst denying access to these tools to billions around the world. 

To me this is repulsive. Healthcare should not be a market. It’s something that’s meant to serve people and strengthen public health, not private wealth. 

I also find it disgraceful that there are so many large corporations that make enormous sums of money in the UK, pay NO tax, and yet rely on the NHS to keep their employees healthy and working. We could easily generate the funds required to properly invest in the NHS and restore it to health by asking these companies to pay their fair share. 

Instead, the government is refusing to give frontline NHS staff the above inflation pay rise they need and deserve. After years of real-terms pay cuts, it is no wonder so many have been forced to take strike action. The government is also viciously attacking the rights of migrant communities - who disproportionately hold staff roles within the NHS. The idea that the CEO of a private healthcare company is more welcome in our NHS than a migrant doctor or nurse is utterly shameful.

All of these twisted priorities pose a huge risk to the future of our health service. But it doesn't have to be this way. Going forward I want to see an NHS which is free from market-driven political ideology, which receives funding and investment in line with national wealth, and which enables clinicians to provide what’s truly required to benefit public health. 

So on the 75th birthday of the NHS, although there isn’t much to celebrate right now, there is a more positive future that both patients and staff must fight for together. We need everyone who feels frustrated by the current broken system to hold the government to account and demand change. The NHS has cared for us, now we must care for it.