The NHS is not just in crisis, it’s in an emergency
The word “crisis” is often thrown around too liberally. But with every day bringing a new dismal statistic about the state of Britain’s National Health Service — from the soaring numbers of excess deaths to appalling ambulance waiting times to the droves of medical staff who are leaving — it would be hard to argue that it does not apply in this case.
Keir Starmer, Labour’s leader, said over the weekend that the NHS was “not just on its knees, it’s on its face”, calling this “the worst crisis we’ve ever had”. This is more than just opposition party hyperbole: his words have been echoed widely by health officials and the media, including the foreign press, who use the same term.
Yet it does not seem at all clear that we are in crisis mode. The prime minister has spoken about “unacceptable delays” in ambulance and A&E waiting times, and convened a “recovery forum” last week with health leaders, but he has also refused to call it a crisis. And while the situation dominates many headlines, it is fighting a losing battle for coverage with Prince Harry. We are not banging saucepans every Thursday to tell our doctors and nurses that we do, still, love them. We aren’t publishing the faces of the estimated 300 to 500 people dying every week because of delays in emergency care response times.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Jemima Kelly
