Just clapping carers and Cpt Tom won’t save our NHS

With both mother and child at risk, time was of the essence. A while later the doctor arrived at the bed of the recovering patient, their new little bundle of joy wrapped warmly in a blanket by their side, and asked, ‘Do you remember, just before we operated, I asked you if you’d signed the consent form?

“You nodded that you had. Well, you hadn’t, so could you please sign it now.”

With a signature added to the all important piece of paper duly, he smiled, and added, “It’s maybe worth knowing that had you said ‘No’ at the time, the delay that would have caused may have made the difference between being able to save you both or loosing one of you. You said the right thing.”

That new mother was my mam and baby bundle, complete with scar where a scalpel had nicked so urgent was the incision, well, that was me. I still have that scar, it has grown with me, an unusual birthmark and a constant reminder that from the moment I was born the NHS has been there to save my life. It was there again when I was badly concussed and later when stricken with high blood pressure.

The NHS is always there when we need it, which sadly makes it only to easy to take for granted, and therein lies the danger lies. It’s almost impossible to imagine life without the NHS, of a world where insurance or credit card before treatment is administered becomes the norm. Yet that is the future we could be facing if we don’t bolster our conviction to, as the popular hash tag goes, Save Our NHS.

That should not mean treating the NHS as charity - it’s not. Admirable as Cpt Tom’s phenomenal fund-raising may be in this time of global crisis, we must not let the powers that be gaslight us into thinking of the NHS as something we do sponsored walks and swims to fund.

And I surely can't be the only one thinking that ploughing in the millions that have been raised this way, while saving lives, also makes our health service, which is already envied around the world, a far more proposition to the private sector.

You can almost sense the US health providers and insurance companies baying in the shadows, waiting to pounce when the sell-off attempt comes both north and south of the border, as it undoubtedly will, despite protestations to the contrary.

Everyone has their own story of how the NHS saved their life or that of their loved ones and we need to ensure Government funds the NHS adequately and in such a way that investment is targeted to make the jobs of the heroes on the front line easier.

Clap for the carers every Thursday if that’s your thing, but don’t let it distract you from this Government's never ending assault on our most valuable asset, the NHS.

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Just clapping carers and Cpt Tom won’t save our NHS - Liam Rudden