Rickets. Many in public health were determined to find a cure. Rickets is caused by a lack of Vitamin D. ibid.
Before the National Health Service the hospital was not always the kind of place you would go to get better. Forbidding, rudimentary and reserved for the destitute, hospitals were a last resort. Timeshift: Health Before the NHS: A Medical Revolution
Leading up to the NHS, Hospitals would undergo an extraordinary transformation. ibid.
Access to good hospital health care became a right. ibid.
One of the period’s biggest killers: childhood disease. ibid.
Women giving birth in hospitals for the first time. ibid.
They called it the Iron Lung. Polio was a virus that attacked the central nervous system and disabled the muscles it infected. ibid.
Getting into hospitals at all was getting harder. ibid.
The old workhouse infirmaries mainly reserved for the long term sick and the elderly. ibid.
Fifty thousand hospital beds were added in just a few months. ibid.
The government faced opposition from the medical profession. ibid.
It was the dawn of a new age. But it hadn’t emerged from nowhere. This had been a long revolution built on decades of innovation. ibid.
Health care for all – free at the point of service from cradle to grave. ibid.
Today we have a health insurance industry where the first and foremost goal is to maximize profits for shareholders and CEOs, not to cover patients who have fallen ill or to compensate doctors and hospitals for their services. It is an industry that is increasingly concentrated and where Americans are paying more to receive less. Dianne Feinstein
And if you think socialised medicine is a good idea, ask a Canadian. George H W Bush
Jobs? There are no jobs. John Q 2002 starring Denzel Washington & Robert Duvall & James Woods & Daniel E Smith & Anne Heche & Ray Liotta & Shawn Hatosy & Heath Wahlquist & David Thornton & Laura Harring & Troy Beyer & Kevin Connolly & Troy Winbush et al, director Nick Cassavetes, pal
He’s going to need a transplant or he’s going to die. ibid. doctor
You’re going to have to guarantee payment before I can put your son’s name on the list. ibid. administrator
I’m not asking you any more, doctor. I’m telling you. ibid. Washington
From now on free healthcare for everyone. ibid.
I’m waiting on a miracle, OK? ibid.
When people are sick, they deserve a little help. ibid.
Jim: The National Health Service, Humphrey, is an advanced case of galloping bureaucracy.
Sir Humphrey: Ooooh, certainly not galloping. A gentle canter at the most. Yes, Minister s2e1: The Compassionate Society, BBC 1981
Arguably the greatest technological triumph of the century has been the public health system, which is sophisticated, preventive and investigative medicine organized around mostly low- and medium-tech equipment ... fully half of us are alive today because of the improvements. Richard Rhodes, Visions of Technology, 1999
It turns out Cuba has this incredible healthcare system for a very poor country. Michael Moore
One million dead Americans because we refused to listen to Hillary Clinton [universal health care]. Michael Moore in Trumpland ***** 2016
Prior to the creation of the Trusts, all Health Service employees had the benefit of any nationally negotiated terms and conditions set by the Whitley Council for their particular staff group ... Following the transfer to the Trust, the current Whitley Council terms and conditions are preserved. What is the effect of subsequent changes to Whitley terms? Once a Trust employee has accepted a new contract with the Trust, then both employer and employee have effectively opted out of Whitley. Mary Siddall, Not as Well as Can be Expected, 1992 142 New LJ 763
Private Finance Initiative: fuck the taxpayer! … They sell relatively cheaply all the old hospitals to property developers. Mark Thomas Comedy Product s3e4, Channel 4 1999
They have to build the hospital … They have to rent it off the person who built it … There’s less beds … ibid.
40,000 people signed a petition opposing the PFI plans in Coventry. ibid.
Our grandparents fought for years to get the Health Service. ibid.
Thousands of Caribbean and African women whose contributions down the years has largely gone unnoticed. The have helped create and sustain the NHS for sixty years. They looked after us even at the expense of caring for their own families. The nation has much to thank them for. Black Nurses: The Women Who Saved the NHS, BBC 2016
The country needed help to repair the damage of war. ibid.
‘There were not enough nurses to do the job.’ ibid.
‘Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!’ ibid.
‘That’s who I am: a black woman who happened to be a nurse.’ ibid.
A background of racial violence and abuse. ibid.
Many black nurses and midwives found life easier when they gravitated to the inner cities. ibid.
‘Work hard, play hard, you get on with life.’ ibid.
In Britain we have a serious problem with our weight. More of us are getting heavier and suffering from ill health, but who’s to blame? The cost of obesity is now so great it threatens to bankrupt our NHS. But what if I were to tell you there is a treatment that can help tackle our obesity crisis: one we’re not using because of an anti-fat prejudice. A bias that may even extend to our health services meaning many patients aren’t getting the best available care. A prejudice that has made the problem worse for us all. Obesity: How Prejudiced is the NHS? BBC 2017
Weight-loss surgery can put Type 2 diabetes into remission, even before the patient has lost any weight. I can’t understand why we’re not doing more of these operations. ibid.
The crisis in today’s healthcare system is deeply rooted in the interwoven history of modern medicine and corporate capitalism … Out of this history emerged a medical system that poorly serves society’s health needs. E Richard Brown, 1979
The US health care system is an international scandal; it’s roughly twice the per capita costs of comparable countries and some of the worst outcomes. Noam Chomsky, interview Democracy Now! April 2017
NHS hospitals treat over a quarter of a million of us every day. Open 24/7 hospitals help begin life, save life, and provide care when life ends. If you think hospitals are kept running by doctors and nurses, think again … Maintenance is a matter of life and death. The Secret Life of the Hospital, Channel 5 2018
The NHS has 1.7 million staff making it the biggest employer in Europe. ibid.
A place we never see – the blood sciences lab … Across the UK, 300,000 patients are tested every day. ibid.
The danger of infection is present on every hospital ward. ibid.
Staff need ten sets of linen per bed. ibid.
A worker making minimum wage could work full-time for an entire year [and] not earn enough to pay for a healthcare benefit. Fix It: Healthcare at the Tipping Point, Mark Dudzic, healthcare activist, 2016
For an average family of four – this year’s numbers: $23,000. ibid. Professor Uwe Reinhardt
It is running away from us. Healthcare costs have gone up to three trillion dollars. ibid. expert
We’ve gone from 7% of the economy back in 1971 being healthcare to 18% [2015] today … when the rest of the world is spending less than 10% of their economies and getting healthcare to all their citizens. ibid.
A few sick employees can take down a company. ibid.
The WHO system is set up to discourage people from using healthcare.’ ibid.
Every physician spends $84,000 a year just to interact with the private health insurance industry. ibid.