As an NHS social worker of 12 years, and voluntary sector before that, and latterly an active trade unionist, the altruistic nature of a national health service free at the point of use is something I will always fight for.
In the time I’ve been a social worker I’ve seen firsthand a depletion of funding and resources, I’ve also seen outsourcing of public money straight into the private sector.
I’ve become very disillusioned in the duties of my job; I implement the very mechanic of putting public money into the hands of private care home managers and shareholders. My job entails discharging patients from an acute in-patient setting into, for the most part, privately-owned and -run care home facilities.
When I began my post, I had no baseline of experience to gauge what was happening on a macro level; but as my experience grew, I could see the cracks in the system appear, and I began to understand what was happening in my daily duties.
I work at this at both ends of the care pipeline, in the community for acute care, and in accessing alternative care arrangements post-discharge from hospital.
Recently I noticed a change in my breast tissue, and after repeated attempts at getting an appointment, I managed to get seen by my GP. My GP gave me a ‘red flag’ referral straight away to be screened.
Waiting lists for ‘red flag’ breast screening referrals are now 11 weeks in the Northern Trust, the target being 14 days. Women are languishing on these lists, desperate with worry, and some may well be waiting too long. Northern Health and Social Trust Board Performance Report October 2023 shows 11 weeks wait times, and no change now in Summer 2024.
The choice between waiting 11 weeks or going private and being seen in 2-3 weeks isn’t one that is available to most women, and it’s one that weighed heavily on my mind as I knew what the private sector does to the NHS. And I wanted my referral to be seen. I wanted to know what was wrong with my breast ASAP. And I was prepared to part with whatever money it took, even if it meant getting into more debt. And I hate that there is a paywall to healthcare in the UK now. I was able to choose, and I chose to go private.
The experience of visiting a private hospital is akin to glimpsing what the NHS was, and should be again. Happy staff, clean, warm surroundings, an air of calm… This is healthcare as it should be – excellent, and well-funded. The private hospital was able to afford me and my partner privacy and dignity, and I was left thinking that this is what we all could have; it is what we all SHOULD have. But that money the patient pays to get this level of care does not go to helping other members of the public, it goes to executives, board members and shareholders.
After my scans and biopsy, the consultant transferred me to their care within the NHS. Once your referral is seen, you’re ‘in the system’, and the process moves swiftly from scans, biopsies, to diagnosis, surgery and treatment.
This concluded the private sector involvement of my cancer journey. I felt relieved and guilty, and I’m angry at how the NHS has been allowed to break like this. The movement of public funding through the NHS to private healthcare firms is simply tragic. I realise I’ve come to the defence of the public sector late. But I’m here and I’m angry. The promise from various ministers and civil servants that the private sector will save the NHS is disingenuous; an apt analogy would be to say the greyhound chasing the hare is only there to help it get back on its feet.
The private sector exists alongside the NHS, and yet it didn’t come with its own staff: rather it poached already existing NHS staff with better pay and working conditions. To say the private sector is there to ‘fill the gaps’ in the NHS is nonsense: The private sector HELPED CREATE the gaps in the first place, alongside woeful mismanagement by various governments going back to Thatcher’s neoliberal agenda.
In conclusion, it is plain to see that there is prompt, life-saving healthcare, but only for those that are able to afford it. The rest of us, many with urgent care needs, languish on long waiting lists, some never to make it to the front of the queue, and others yet diagnosed with far worse ailments than if they were seen promptly.
Healthcare should never be commoditified. The profiteering from people’s health, or lack thereof, is unethical to say the least. We have to educate our friends and families on what is happening to our NHS, we need to make our elected officials aware of just how angry we are at losing something so valuable, and only then will we start to see our Public Health Service work for everyone, regardless of one’s means.
