What are we celebrating (The NHS at 70, Journal, 2 July)? There is no national health service in England. It has been replaced by 44 local “footprints” which, over the course of their recent existence, have changed the acronyms and euphemisms in their title on an irregular and confusing basis. After “sustainability and transformation” (STP) there was “accountable care”, then “integrated care”, and “place-based care”. The complete obfuscation was accompanied by changes from “partnership” to “plan” to “organisation” to “system”.
The Cheshire and Merseyside “partnership board” meets in Liverpool this Wednesday. Speakers include the “independent chair” of the region’s footprint. He is paid £150,000 for two days a week. On the other three days he earns his crust from a consultancy advising local bodies on how to implement “sustainability”. Another speaker will be NHS England’s “national director in charge of catalysing integrated care”, who announced to the Health Service Journal when STPs were being set up that they offer private sector organisations an “enormous opportunity”. Last but not least is the STP “lead” and “owner” of the Cheshire and Merseyside sustainability and transformation partnership business plan, the most egregious part of which to date within its £1bn planned cuts is a payment of £300,000 to PwC, which for its incompetence recently received the Financial Reporting Council’s highest ever fine.
An item on the board’s agenda is “coffee break and celebrating the NHS at 70”. Yes, we are celebrating with joy 70 years of a unique public service and its incredible staff. But the message from campaigners outside Wednesday’s meeting will be “celebrate and defend”. When will the partners stop obeying orders – and their complicity in the fragmentation, demoralisation and privatisation of our beloved NHS – and demand the reinstatement of a universal, free, comprehensive and public national service?
Kevin Donovan
Birkenhead, Merseyside
• Not brought out in your otherwise excellent summary of the NHS is that, while Labour increased real per-capita health spending on average 5.4% between 1996–97 and 2009–10, the Tories, predominantly, increased it only by a measly average of 0.6% a year between 2009–10 and 2015–16. And also that the coalition’s 2012 Health and Social Care Act, of which “Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt now admit the changes … have been very damaging”, marked a major split from the original principles of the NHS. First by increasing privatisation, which in general increases overall cost, but also by allowing, via Propco, the sell-off of all NHS land and property.
David Murray
London
• Having just read Hannah Jane Parkinson’s article on mental health (Don’t talk to me about feeling blue, Weekend, 30 June), I would just like to thank her for putting her experiences with her own issues, the NHS, and how it affects her life overall, so eloquently. I could relate to a lot of what she said, from the feeling of missed opportunities in life to that of calling for help and that call being ignored (especially around GPs), the frustration of wanting help and being let down, and the anger at the simplification of illnesses that are anything but simple (I want to scream too when I read that poster in my GP surgery exclaiming “Mental health can be complex – getting help doesn’t have to be”).
I have been lucky in having a very supportive mother who could see past the depression and social anxiety and body dysmorphia to the person I was underneath, and who could afford private healthcare when it became clear the care of the NHS would be far from adequate.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Guardian for, as an employer, not defining Hannah by her mental health issues but by her competence as a journalist. Her article made my week, and gave me hope that we might one day be able to change the tone of the Conversation to effect real and meaningful change in people’s lives.
Name and address supplied
• For the Fertility Network to claim that axing IVF treatment is “against the founding principles of the NHS” is sophistry (IVF services slashed as NHS bosses cut costs, 30 June). The NHS was founded to alleviate, cure and prevent disease, particularly the spread of infectious diseases; to treat injuries, perform surgical procedures that saved lives and/or alleviated pain and suffering; and to provide midwifery and other medical services. It was never conceived to meet all the emotional needs of self-fulfilment.
The NHS’s brief has been distended to the point of near breakage, and the debate as to what are the limits of its remit in the 21st century is long overdue. To meet any rational approach to this with cries of “rationing” is to deny that every system’s capacity is finite. And at a time when extra taxation will be levied to provide more money to the health system, it is crystal clear that all resources will need to be measured and wisely spent. To do anything else would be manifestly irresponsible.
Serena Wylde
London
• Any interview with Clement Attlee’s granddaughter regarding the NHS will understandably focus on the former prime minister and Labour leader (‘He would be amazed’: Attlee’s granddaughter reflects on his enduring vision, 2 July). I was surprised, however, that neither Belinda Johnston nor Denis Campbell made any reference to Aneurin Bevan. Attlee was a great leader and certainly deserves some of the credit for establishing the NHS – but arguably his greatest contribution was his willingness to see beyond differences in politics and personality in appointing Bevan as health minister.
Sotirios Hatjoullis
London
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