2 weeks Ago By Conor Wilson
When I wrote in September about fears that Labour continually dismissing the NHS as broken could crush staff morale and scare people off from seeking desperately needed treatment, I didn’t expect to be getting my own insight a little more than a week later of just what sort of state our health service is in. But an early morning run, wet weather and old trainers with no grip all conspired against me, leaving me in A&E with a sense of dread and an ankle at an angle it wasn’t supposed to be. So low were my expectations of the NHS that since leaving the British Army at the end of 2023 I haven’t yet bothered to register at my local GP practice.
After all, everyone says you can’t get an appointment, so what’s the point? In the way that every office moans about IT or British travellers have to mention the poor weather back home to every foreigner they meet, no conversation about the NHS is now complete without an obligatory cliched moan about waiting lists, overworked staff or rude GP receptionists. Where did that sense of dread come from? Partly it came from first, second and third-hand accounts of NHS experiences, some real, some fictitious which portrayed the NHS solely in terms of doom and gloom. But it also came from the Government and the kind of rhetoric that has led to senior bosses speaking out on the damage it does.
How did it get to this? Our once great NHS , the envy of millions across the world, reduced to a reputation more befitting of a third-world aid station. Partly, it has been deserved. Internal factors such as inefficiency, bureaucracy and poor training combined with an ageing population and economic instability have set the conditions that would place any public health service under strain.
However, there is a wider issue about messaging that precedes the new Labour government but has been accentuated by them in their first 100 days in office. Health Secretary Wes Streeting used his Labour conference speech to claim "the NHS is broken" and his repetition of that messaging has forced senior leaders in the organisation to warn of the dangers of doing so. It has almost become a cornerstone of government policy to talk down public services, the economy and even the general outlook for the coming year.
Whilst it might be a strategy of under-promising and over-delivering, something I use often to great effect with my wife and children, it has unintended consequences. It creates a narrative that downplays the excellent work people in the NHS do on a daily basis. It drives the notion that every interaction with public health will be painful and it contributes to declining morale for those inside the system.
One senior NHS boss recently told the BBC that the government’s messaging was causing "an increasing nervousness that if it continues much longer, it could spook patients and make it really difficult to raise staff morale. Hope is important". My experience of the NHS was unrecognisable from the one, I expected after listening to Wes Streeting and Keir Starmer.
My time in A&E showcased the best of what the NHS can be. The welcoming receptionist, the ambitious student radiographer and the foreign porter with his wicked sense of humour helped to lessen the pain coming from my L-shaped ankle. This multicultural, supremely talented workforce was something to be proud of, not talked down.
That isn’t to say there are not issues and being wheeled past elderly patients on corridor beds brings that home clear as day. I know first-hand the frustration of being on an NHS waiting list, having been on one for over a year to have my three-year-old access a speech therapist. There are huge issues within the service and Lord Darzi’s recent report pulled no punches but there is no need to overstate them for political gain at the expense of reducing public trust unnecessarily.
According to the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) latest reports, there were only eight inadequate services from the 193 inspections they did last month. One was a GP service and the remainder care services. Whilst it is eight too many, it is a reminder that the UK remains a leader in care.
So, let’s identify and address the issues without overstating them. But let’s also not shy away from talking up our public services when they exceed our expectations. Because although they might not be perfect, things would be a lot worse without them.
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