It will be impossible to retain NHS as it is without a Yes vote Published on 22 July 2014 in the herald Scotland MAGNUS Gardham is right that the health service should be at the forefront of the independence debate (Health at the heart of our big debate, The Herald, July 19). We all have a vested interest in having unconditional access to universal health care that is best when and where it is needed most. It is informative and enlightening to reflect on the changes to the delivery of health care in England, because this tells us something about the ideological direction of government and raises a vital question: is health care really regarded as a fundamental right? There is growing anxiety about the state of NHS England from patient pressure groups, the BMA (whose incoming chairman has called for the repeal of the health and social care legislation) and the Royal College of General Practitioners, which has launched a petition highlighting the threat to the future of general practice. Clearly, in terms of real funding, the changes in NHS England have not made any tangible difference to the challenge of delivering health care in the community. The integrity of any government is represented in its health and welfare policies; therefore it is also helpful to understand why there is a persistence of health inequalities when the rhetoric of the UK Coalition Government is about a fairer society. We now know that the scale of health inequalities is strongly influenced by inequalities in power, money and available resources in society. This is starkly represented in the average life expectancy of 74 in Glasgow, compared with 89 in Kensington, London. This is the biggest gap in mortality since 1880. The NHS is value for money and is an efficient service but as the core NHS spend in NHS England is reduced as privatisation becomes the norm, then the proportion to Scotland also reduces. It will be financially impossible to maintain NHS Scotland in its current form with a reduced budget and without control of our full economic powers. No-one working in the frontline of NHS Scotland would deny that there are many challenges to the NHS that will have to be addressed in the event of a Yes vote. A move away from the UK Governments neoliberal policies of low employment and few employment opportunities, austerity measures and welfare reform, low income and a widening gap in income between the top and lowest-earning workers is a step in the right direction and achievable with a Yes vote. This will ensure that health inequalities in Scotland are neither unavoidable nor inevitable and that NHS Scotland will have a realistic agenda of preventative health care. Dr Anne Mullin GP (member NHS for Yes),
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 11:03:13 +0000
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