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The right-wing press are denigrating everything about the NHS because they believe that its founding principle - equity of treatment, free at the point of use - is "Stalinist". They use every small flaw (and in a system that treats a million people a day, there will always be flaws and screw-ups, as there are in EVERY helthcare system the world over).
As Tony Blair has rightly argued, we need a non-hysterical discussion about this which admit that the price we pay for providing everyone with equal treatment is that sometimes we will have to wait. That is horrible - but the alternatives (that poor people will wait forever, because they ain't going to get treated) are even worse. I can't help but think of my grandmother, who could never have afforded any kind of healthcare insurance but in fact, when she was ill, was given the best treatment possible, free, by the NHS. I am proud that we have a system that does this; a system which values its toilet-cleaners as much as it values peers of the realm.
Of course we all have high consumer expectations now - but healthcare is not a consumer item, it is a basic human need, so it can't be treated the same way. The NHS does a fantastic job, and needs to be mended, not ended . . .
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Naiveity beyond belief [
