NHS workers have gone viral on Twitter after their anti-Tory movement, using the hashtag #mypublicduty gained traction.
Many healthcare professionals have spoken out expressing that it their duty to urge votes against the Tories and for Labour in order to save the dwindling NHS.
Hundreds of those who work within our treasured National Health Service are saying that the Tories can not be trusted to preserve one of the nation’s most iconic and valued institutions.
Here’s a video of old boy Harry Leslie Smith reminding us what it was like before the NHS:
The NHS’s seemingly endless winter of discontent continues as recent reports show how A&E waiting times were the worst ever since current targets were introduced in 2004.
At a time when more than 60,000 people are waiting between four and 12 hours for a bed, while 780 waited more than 12 hours according to statistics leaked to the BBC, some action needs to be taken to save it.
Demand for the NHS is growing immensely due to greater life expectancy, population growth, and an ageing population, however the percentage of our GDP going towards it has decreased.
The Labour government are promising an increase in NHS staff wages as well as abolishing tuition fees for student nurses and midwives if they are elected.
The Conservatives maintain that ‘a strong NHS needs a strong economy’.
Since being elected in 2015, the Conservatives have taken steps towards privatisation to save the NHS.
They have done this through the selling of certain parts of the complex system to firms such as Virgin Care, Care UK, and Bupa.
Figures from the Department of Health show that the amount of funding going to ‘independent sector providers’ more than doubled from £4.1 billion in 2009/10 (Labour’s last year in power) to £8.7 billion in 2015/16.
The Conservatives argue that putting some competition at the heart of the NHS would improve quality while also protecting free services.
Ministers behind the 2012 Health and Social Care Act said competition would only be used if it is in the best interests of patients and that private companies would not be given any advantages.
The NHS was created as a nationwide service, to serve all people in need, equally.
There is a danger that if healthcare becomes a business, with a vested interest in money-making instead of quality of service, those with more money will be able to ‘jump the queue’ created ‘second class citizens’ in a two tier health system.
Here is a helpful list of health policies for both parties so that you can compare directly.
Hundreds of NHS workers were joined by those in the police force and other public sector roles in a movement to serve what they felt was their public duty.
Labour vow to invest £2.5 billion more than the Tories to recruit 8000 more GPs, 20,000 more nurses and 3000 more midwives, while the Conservatives want to increase spending as part of the long-term economic plan in order to improve quality of service.
Whatever your opinion this election season, make sure it is educated, based in logic, and regardless of which way, make sure you vote.
