NHS crisis: Politicians are not offering a comprehensive solution on how to fix the health service

Published

1 year ago

January 27, 2023

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The NHS is in the worst crisis in its 75 years, say health experts.

And you only had to listen to the heart-wrenching stories of the audience during a live Sky News programme on the NHS at Coventry Hospital for the reality of that to be laid bare.

There was James, whose wife died after waiting too long for an ambulance – and Sarah, whose mum died from an infection in hospital after waiting too long to be discharged into community care.

Stories that provoked gasps of horror and expressions of distress from the audience, as those around them recounted how they lost loved ones in a health system on its knees.

And as the stories of failings were shared, the obvious question that followed was whether the NHS can survive in its current form, or if it needs a radical rethink.

This is of course an intensely political question, given that it is governments that decide how much investment should be put into the health system, sort out the infrastructure, and decide how it should be organised.

There is a growing discussion in Westminster about how the NHS should be funded, with the former health secretary Sajid Javid telling me last year that he doesn’t believe the NHS can survive and the country needs an “honest conversation” about how we pay for healthcare.

He thinks the UK should look to European neighbours that have a mix of private insurance and state provision, where patients pay some money for services. He recently said those who can afford it should also pay to see a GP.

But this wasn’t a view shared by our audience, with many shaking their heads when I reflected some of the political discussion back in Westminster around the future of the NHS.

As Phil Brown, a retired children’s nurse, said: “As Nye Bevan [the founder of the NHS] put it, the NHS will survive for as long as there are people even now who are prepared to fight for it.

“Give back an elective nurses council, take away the parking charges, give us a four-day week, we will graft… and watch what all NHS staff can do.”

The audience reflected wider public sentiment, according to Hugh Alderwick, director of policy at the Health Foundation.

“Polling shows strong support for the core principles of the NHS, including it being free at the point of use, available to all and predominantly funded through tax,” he said. “The public want a better health service, rather than a different system and they back additional spending to supply it, with 71% thinking greater government investment in the NHS is necessary.”

But if the audience seemed to agree with the principle of an NHS free at the point of use and funded through taxation, the politicians are not offering comprehensive solutions to how to end a crisis that was beginning long before the COVID pandemic.

Chronic staff shortages, the need for more investment, a plan to fix adult social care and weak capital investment in buildings, equipment and IT, are some of the big problems facing the NHS but our politicians tend to deal in sticking plasters not real solutions.

The most obvious example being the ditching of Boris Johnson’s £12bn-a-year plan to better fund the NHS and social care through a National Insurance tax rise and a cap on individual care costs to protect the elderly from exorbitant costs.

That successive government inaction now hitting home with ambulance delays, bed blocking and high levels of unmet needs.

But on both sides of the political divide, parties are for now unwilling to grasp the nettle.

The Conservatives have delayed social care reform until after the next general election. They have promised a plan on improving emergency care, access and workforce to deal with acute staffing shortages, but there is a private admission within government that it is unlikely that patients will feel much improvement in services before an election and there is certainly no talk of increased investment.

Labour too is unwilling to commit to more funding, anxious that they open up a line of attack from the Conservatives if it commits to spending plans for the NHS.

As deputy leader Angela Rayner put it to me in a recent interview, Labour will focus on reforming the NHS – a big push on changing the way GP surgeries work and increasing preventative medicine – rather than raising taxes to pay for it.

The “retail offer” from Labour is to pay for more doctors and nurses by scrapping non-dom tax status and funnelling the estimated £3.2bn that will raise into extra training places.

Lord Winston, the IVF pioneer who has worked in the NHS for nearly six decades, told me last week he had never seen it so bad and said he believed more funding would be inevitable. He urged Sir Keir Starmer to show more “courage” when it came to resolving the problems of the NHS.

With an election less than two years away, political leaders are for now playing it safe with difficult decisions delayed. But what was clear from our discussion is that voters want the NHS to survive in its current form. And they will expect their political leaders to deliver it.

World

Slovakia’s PM Robert Fico fights for life – as leader attacks ‘attempted assassination on democracy’

Published

7 hours ago

May 16, 2024

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Slovakia's PM Robert Fico fights for life - as leader attacks 'attempted assassination on democracy'

Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico is fighting for his life after yesterday’s assassination attempt, Slovak officials have said, as they condemned the attack as an “attempted assassination on democracy”.

The comments come as Slovak police charged a suspect in connection with the attack.

The country’s interior minister Sutaj Estok described the suspect as a “lone wolf”, saying the shooting was politically motivated.

Slovakia prime minister shot – latest: Slovak PM ‘not out of the woods yet’

At a news conference earlier, President-elect Peter Pellegrini said he was “appalled” at “where hate can lead us” as he called for calm alongside outgoing President Zuzana Caputova.

“An attempted assassination of the prime minister is an attempted assassination on democracy,” Mr Pellegrini said,

“This assassination attempt needs to be condemned by all of us jointly … We must not respond to hate with more hate or else this evil will never be stopped,” he said.

Multiple shots were fired on Wednesday outside a cultural centre in the town of Handlova, around 85 miles northeast of the capital Bratislava, where the 59-year-old prime minister was meeting supporters, the government said.

Slovakia’s deputy prime minister Robert Kalinak described the attack as “premeditated”, saying Mr Fico was “not out of the woods yet”.

Doctors have performed a five-hour operation on Mr Fico and he is being treated in an intensive care unit, one hospital official has said.

The country’s defence minister has said Mr Fico’s serious condition is due to how “complicated” his gunshot injuries were.

The attack comes as political campaigning heats up three weeks ahead of Europe-wide elections to choose members for the European Parliament.

Mr Fico has long been a divisive figure. His return to power last year on a pro-Russian, anti-American ticket led to worries among fellow EU and NATO members that he would turn his country further away from the Western mainstream.

Under his stewardship, the government has halted arms deliveries to Ukraine, and his opponents worry he will lead Slovakia in the footsteps of Viktor Orban’s Hungary.

Thousands have repeatedly rallied in the capital and across Slovakia to protest against Mr Fico’s policies.

The attack, which was the first major assassination attempt on a European political leader for more than 20 years, has been condemned internationally.

In a message released by the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin wished the prime minister a fast and full recovery.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also condemned the violence against a neighbouring country’s head of government.

“Every effort should be made to ensure that violence does not become the norm in any country, form or sphere,” he said.

World

What will China want to talk about during Vladimir Putin’s state visit?

Published

7 hours ago

May 16, 2024

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What will China want to talk about during Vladimir Putin's state visit?

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to China is part of the great power politics currently being played out between the West and the global south.

In this arena, China’s President Xi Jinping is promoting his multipolar view of the world, a realignment of the world’s geopolitical centre away from the US and Europe, to Asia.

Xi sees China front and centre on the stage, with a coterie of countries to back him up.

China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are at one end of the spectrum, but widen out the view and there is also Brazil, India and South Africa, who all see the world through a lens at odds with the West.

Added to that is the so-called “no-limits” friendship between Russia and China. It has been tested to the limit as Russia continues its war in Ukraine. But there is no sign China has any plan to abandon its neighbour.

So what will China want to talk about?

First, the Russia-Ukraine war. China is under growing pressure from the US and Europe to rein in exports of dual-use items like semiconductors and machinery tools that Russia can use on the battlefield.

But if China is feeling the heat, you wouldn’t know it. Its exports to Russia surged last year. The way Xi Jinping sees it, Russia is another market for China’s export driven economy, and with Western companies banned from doing business with Russia, China has stepped in to take advantage of it.

Why Putin may visit Vietnam next

There is a possibility, Vladimir Putin will visit Vietnam after his summit with Xi Jingping in Beijing, or later this month. It would be Putin’s first state visit to the country since 2017.

Vietnam is one of Russia’s three closest partners in Asia, alongside China and North Korea.

Experts suggest a visit from Putin would signal to the world that he’s committed to a “Turn to the East” policy and allow the Russian leader to show that Western efforts to isolate his government over its invasion of Ukraine have failed.

Maintaining a close connection to Moscow is a priority for the Vietnamese leadership. They have a tricky balancing act trying to juggle ties with both America and China.

Beijing’s encroachments into the South China Sea represents a potential territorial threat to Hanoi. Whilst America is an obvious counterweight to that, the US is also considered a threat to the ruling Communist Party.

Welcoming Putin to Hanoi, a leader the West has sought to cut off, is proof the Vietnam government wants close relationships with as many powerful nations as possible.

Russia is one of its seven so-called “strategic partners” and it would come as no surprise if Putin does touch down in Hanoi. Vietnam could also be expected to seek an arms deal with its historical ally and replenish its ageing Soviet-era military equipment.

China is also resisting pressure from the West to use its leverage to force Mr Putin to wind down the war.

While President Xi doesn’t want to see Russia in the grip of collapse, after all they share a 2,500-mile-long border, a long, grinding war in Ukraine has benefits for China.

It drains European energy and resources, distracts the US and allows China to get on with its territorial claims in Asia and its ambition to dominate international trade in EVs, solar panels and batteries.

In this Sino-Russian relationship, China has the upper hand. It’s receiving cheap raw materials from Russia and paying 30% less for natural gas than Europe did before the war. China is calling the shots.

While Mr Putin and Mr Xi have an enduring friendship, this alignment is a thorn in the side for the West. But there seems little Europe and the US can do about it. Threats aren’t working, sanctioning Chinese banks might.

For Beijing, it’s all about balance. China needs the US and Europe to remain open to its exports. So far, it has been able to have it all. However, it’s becoming increasingly untenable for the West to stand by while China stands with Russia.

A time may yet come when President Xi Jinping is forced to make a choice.

World

Putin thanks Xi for his efforts to resolve Ukraine conflict as the ‘good friends’ bolster China-Russia ties

Published

7 hours ago

May 16, 2024

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Putin thanks Xi for his efforts to resolve Ukraine conflict as the 'good friends' bolster China-Russia ties

Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked Xi Jinping for China’s efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict.

The two leaders met in Beijing where the Chinese president said he hoped Europe will return to peace and stability soon.

Ukraine war latest:
Putin in China; Russia advancing

China offered a 12-point plan for peace last year – which Ukraine and the West rejected.

It has yet to condemn Russia or describe the war in Ukraine as an “invasion” – and has also criticised Western sanctions imposed on Moscow.

“China hopes for the early return of Europe to peace and stability and will continue to play a constructive role toward this,” Mr Xi said, speaking alongside Mr Putin.

Mr Xi said the two countries were furthering their relationship as “good neighbours, good friends, good partners”, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, echoing their commitment to the “no limits” relationship they signed in 2022, just before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian leader – on a two-day state visit to China – said he would inform the Chinese leader in detail about “the situation in Ukraine”, adding: “We are grateful for the initiative of our Chinese colleagues and friends to regulate the situation.”

Why Putin may visit Vietnam next

There is a possibility Vladimir Putin will visit Vietnam after his summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing, or later this month. It would be Putin’s first state visit to the country since 2017.

Vietnam is one of Russia’s three closest partners in Asia, alongside China and North Korea.

Maintaining a close connection to Moscow is a priority for the Vietnamese leadership. They have a tricky balancing act trying to juggle ties with both America and China.

Beijing’s encroachments into the South China Sea represents a potential territorial threat to Hanoi. While America is an obvious counterweight to that, the US is also considered a threat to the ruling Communist Party.

Welcoming Putin to Hanoi, a leader the West has sought to cut off, is proof the Vietnam government wants close relationships with as many powerful nations as possible.

The two leaders signed a joint statement on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between their two nations, with Mr Xi saying China and Russia would continue to uphold a position of non-alliance and non-confrontation.

Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Mr Putin as saying that Russia-China relations are “not directed against anyone. Our cooperation in world affairs today is one of the main stabilising factors in the international arena”.

Beijing – which claims to take a neutral position in the Ukraine conflict – has forged increasingly close ties with Moscow as the war has dragged into a third year.

China continues to supply Russia with key components for its production of weapons.

Its purchase of Russian oil and gas has also helped boost Russia’s economy.

China-Russia military ties have also strengthened – with both countries hosting each other’s ground forces for joint drills.

They have also held a series of war games in recent years including naval drills and patrols by long-range bombers over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.

On the eve of the visit, Mr Putin said in an interview with Chinese media the Kremlin has “never refused to negotiate” over the conflict in Ukraine.

“We are open to a dialogue on Ukraine, but such negotiations must take into account the interests of all countries involved in the conflict, including ours,” the Russian leader was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said any negotiations must include a restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of all prisoners, a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression, and security guarantees for Ukraine.