The central claim that the Conservative Party makes, its fundamental promise to the electorate, is that it will be a responsible manager of the state. It tries to present its opponents as reckless ideologues, to be contrasted with their own sensible handling of public duties.
The current condition of the NHS exposes this claim as nothing more than a marketing campaign. The NHS remains the single most popular element of the public apparatus in Britain, even as it has descended into a period of prolonged crisis.
A report released today showed that beds have been filled beyond safe levels in 90% of hospitals over winter, with all the results of overcrowding that follow - in long waiting times and cancellations (Triggle, 2017).
It has been the tendency of the Prime Minister Theresa May at recent renditions of PMQs to deflect blame. On healthcare, her response has been to deflect it to the NHS administrators - claiming bad practice in the use of resources for shortfalls and service delivery (Merrick, 2016).
To back up that claim, the government says it has provided the funding the NHS asked for - but that is a half truth at best. The government has been accused by fact checkers, and Parliament's health committee, of fudging their numbers (Campbell, 2016).
While the government repeats its criticised claims of providing "$10 billion" of extra funds - with the reality being half of that - more parts of Britain's physical, mental health and social care service slide into crisis.
For instance: Social care is critically underfunded (Eichler, 2016). It was not protected from austerity and has been terribly withered by cuts to local government.
The Tories have no 'responsible' remedy. Talk of upfront charges for foreign patients (BBC, 2017), claims of bad practice in administration - these are cheap deflections, taking advantage of anti-immigration myths or falling back on tired austerity.
On social care, the Tories have responded with trivial tax powers for painfully stretched councils. But they will raise more in richer areas and less in poorer, and raise little in either case - only £200m nationally - to counteract the deep cuts that have ravaged the social care infrastructure (Merrick, 2016; BBC, 2016).
Standing back and observing the Conservative stewardship of health and social care, brings one of only two conclusions: incompetence or ideologically driven mismanagement. Whether deliberate or due to incompetence, the NHS is being undermined.
The public stood behind last year's strikes by junior doctors. But the pressure remains and continues to build. Progressives must start to dismantle the façade and show people the reality of the Conservative Party behind the marketing image.
The future of health and social care in Britain depends upon the public understanding its worth and seeing with their own eyes the devastating impact that Tory policies have had on this iconic symbol of progress in Britain.
References
Nick Triggle's 'NHS Health Check: Nine in 10 hospitals 'overcrowded' this winter'; on the BBC; 6 February 2017.
Rob Merrick's 'Jeremy Corbyn blames massive Government cuts for social care crisis in clear PMQs victory: The Labour leader floors Theresa May by saying 'The Prime Minister does not seem to be aware that £4.6bn was cut from the social care budget in the last Parliament''; in The Independent; 14 December 2016.
Denis Campbell's 'Government scolded by watchdog over NHS funding claims: Watchdog investigating Theresa May’s claim of £10bn for NHS tells government to be clearer when presenting statistics'; in The Guardian; 23 November 2016.
Denis Campbell's 'BMA: Theresa May lacks understanding about seriousness of NHS crisis - System on ‘brink of collapse’ but no new funding in autumn statement, despite leave campaigners’ ‘£350m a week’ claim'; in The Guardian; 15 October 2016{2}.
William Eichler's 'Social care faces £2.6bn funding crisis'; from LocalGov; 27 October 2016.
'Upfront charges for NHS foreign patients in England'; on the BBC; 6 February 2017.
'PMQs: Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May social care 'crisis' clash'; on the BBC; 14 December 2016.
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