The most rationed healthcare system in the world. ibid.
Universal healthcare for its 11 million citizens. Abby Martin, Breaking the Set: Cuba II, RT 25-27.02.15
One doctor for every 170 patients … paid up to $70 a month. ibid.
Cuba’s extraordinary global medical record shames the US blockade: In the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake of 2005, Cuba sent 2,400 medical workers to Pakistan and treated more than 70% affected; they also left behind 32 field hospitals and donated a thousand medical scholarships … Haiti: Cuba sent the largest contingent of doctors … 3 million eye surgeries across the world … ibid.
Everyone knows the National Health Service does a fabulous job despite underfunding. Stepping into the funding gap are volunteer riders from services like the Warks and Solihull Blood Bikers (WSBB) who deliver medical supplies in the night and over bank holidays at zero cost to the NHS.
Strange then that WSBB should only get a couple of months’ notice that their services were no longer required by the local health authority, as the contract to supply movement of medical services was being given to a commercial organisation from Gateshead. GreatBritishTees online article 5 April 2018, ‘Charity Blood Bikers Dumped by NHS Warwickshire’
NHS cuts blamed for 30,000 deaths in new study: Government angrily refutes claims, calling report ‘triumph of personal bias over research.’ Independent online article 17 February 2017 Katie Forster
In 2013 the estimated cost to the NHS of irregular migrants in England was £330 million. Who Should Get to Stay in the UK I? BBC 2019
We will win because our NHS is the beating heart of this country. It is the best of this country. It is unconquerable. It is powered by love. Boris Johnson, 12th April 2020
Capitalists should never be allowed near a healthcare system. They hold sick children hostage as they force parents to bankrupt themselves in the desperate scramble to pay for medical care. The sick do not have a choice. Medical care is not a consumable good. We can choose to buy a new or used car, shop at a boutique or a thrift store, but there is no choice between illness and health. Chris Hedges
The last few weeks have seen record numbers of deaths and the biggest challenge for the NHS in its 70-year history. Panorama: On the NHS Frontline, BBC 2020
Around one in ten people who test positive for Covid19 becomes severely unwell and they are admitted to intensive care. Recent research suggests only half those patients might survive. ibid.
Has the government failed to protect the NHS? Are their staff on the Covid wards frightened for their lives? We reveal the mistakes that have put workers in danger. And how the government downgraded protection standards as the virus swept the country. Panorama: Has the Government Failed the NHS? BBC 2020
For weeks the government has been dealing with criticism about stocks of Personal Protective Equipment or PPE. ibid.
It wasn’t just gowns left off the shopping list. ibid.
The hidden secrets that some NHS hospitals are keeping from us. Transparency is key to keeping patients safe. But warnings about patient safety are being kept from the public. Panorama has uncovered dozens of expert reports highlighting serious concerns about patient care. Panorama: Hospital Secrets Uncovered, BBC 2021
Across the UK millions of people are waiting for hospital treatment as health services struggle to clear the growing backlog caused by the pandemic. The delays are having a profound impact on people. The government has committed billions to beating the backlog, but is it enough? Panorama: NHS: Wait or Pay? BBC 2021
At the height of the pandemic, many held back from going to their GP. Now, they are seeking treatment. But face to face appointments are still limited. ibid.
One in five people have paid for private treatment. ibid.
Midwives under unprecedented pressure. They say they’re not being listened to. Mums and babies being put at risk. After repeated scandals in maternity care why aren’t lessons being learned? Panorama: Midwives Under Pressure, BBC 2024
‘It just never occurred to me that I would be going in with a healthy baby and she would end up fighting for her life.’ Panorama: Maternity Scandal: Fighting for the Truth, mother, BBC 2022
It’s one of the biggest scandals in the history of the NHS. Babies who should have been perfectly healthy suffered permanent harm or died. Failure after failure over two decades … and the families forced to fight to uncover the truth. ibid.
What happened at Morecambe Bay should have led to improvements of maternity services across the UK. Poor care had contributed to the deaths of eleven babies and a mother at Furness General Hospital. An inquiry in 2015 found a dysfunctional maternity unit and heard about an overemphasis on normal birth at any cost. ibid.
I campaign to improve the rights of people with disabilities. I want to know why people with a learning disability are more than twice as likely to die from avoidable causes than the rest of the population. And how some hospitals fail to care property for people like me. Panorama: Will the NHS Care for Me? BBC 2022
People with a learning disability are not all the same. ibid.
The NHS patients being treated in private hospitals. It’s all part of a drive to reduce waiting lists. But there can be risks. Panorama: Patients Going Private: What are the Risks? BBC 2024
In the middle of a global pandemic that’s turned our lives upside down, we made time to show how we feel about the National Health Service. It was a spontaneous display of affection for a unique and uniquely British institution that promises to be there for us from cradle to grave. Our NHS: A Hidden History, BBC 2021
Among the people we applauded were tens of thousands of health workers who have sometimes been overlooked in the histories of the NHS but whose contributions have made the service what it is today … I want to understand the experiences of people who migrated to this country to serve in the NHS. ibid.
I’m going to open up government archives to discover how they were seen by a system that needed them but didn’t always want them. ibid.
The NHS was only able to deliver on its promises by drawing into its ranks nurses, doctor, auxiliaries, from other countries. ibid.
They would trust other white nurses more than they would trust me. ibid.
The early ’50s saw a massive recruitment drive for nurses; they came from across the world, from the West Indies to Ireland, part of an unprecedented period of immigration that bolstered both the NHS and the British economy. Tony Robinson’s History of Britain s2e3: 1950s, Channel 5 2022
6 million people are on NHS waiting lists in England. Bradford on Duty IV: Healthy at Home, caption, BBC 2022
The NHS waiting list is now seven million. Seven million people – that’s almost everybody. The good news is, that number will start to drop soon as it gets colder. Frankie Boyle’s New World Order s6e3, BBC 2022
‘We now know that up to 500 people per week are going to die because they cannot receive the emergency care that they so desperately need,’ doctor and Labour MP says. Sky News online tweet 4th January 2023
It’s not that the NHS isn’t working so we need a privatised system; it’s that the Tories want a privatised system for ideological reasons so they are trying to stop the NHS from working. This inevitably involves letting people die who would otherwise not die. Political violence? Neil Dudgeon tweet 28th December 2022
The images of decay and neglect have remained with me and I have never ceased to curse the Tory government for vandalising the National Health Service. Margaret Thatcher’s aggressive efforts to privatise health care in this country were the betrayal of a service that has been one of the proudest achievements of our society. Her policies ruined people’s lives and stripped them of their dignity. Alex Ferguson
Leukaemia, cancer of the blood, is an ominous disease … Much of the experimental treatment is not widely known. World in Action: A Girl Called Sharon, ITV 1967
World in Action deals with the conditions in a mental hospital … Powick Mental Hospital near Worcester built like a hundred others in this country by the Victorians for their lunatics … Some stay for ever … The state of the people who live here are appalling. World in Action: Ward F13, ITV 1968
Powick seems to have become infected with the hopelessness of the Annex inmates. Ibid.
F13: The patients are all female geriatrics … most are incontinent … There are 78 beds only inches apart. ibid.
A parade in Easter bonnet for the patients of a mental hospital [Mapperley in Nottingham]. Some of these people have spent many years here; a few have been here all their lives. But many of them come in just for the day. World in Action: Inside Out, ITV 1969
In the past few weeks Britain’s mental hospital have come in for a hammering. There have been charges of cruelty, carelessness and indifference at some hospitals. In others, the staff are tired and dispirited. ibid.
Some patients who had been inside for forty years were helped back into society. ibid.
The Royal Southern hospital down by the old Liverpool docks. 9 o’clock on Saturday morning. Across the road the Casualty department is about to begin a new shift. World in Action: The Blood & Guts Shift, ITV 1975
The weekend shift is always busy with bottle fights, drug overdoses, pub brawls. They call it the Blood & Guts shift. ibid.
Is the NHS at breaking point? As the gaps widen between expectation and reality – hospital gridlock, falling GP numbers, and an overwhelmed social care system – the NHS was set up to be free at the point at use but what does that look like in 2024. Darren McGarvey: The State We’re In s1e3: Health, BBC 2024