The NHS was never the envy of the world, but now it’s just a disaster

Zoe Strimpel
·2 min read
Ambulances parked outside London Ambulance Service NHS Trust control room in Waterloo, London, as "clique" ambulance staff have been criticised in a new report which suggests that target-driven cultures could be having a negative impact on ambulance trusts "just as it did at Mid Staffs". PA Photo. Issue date: Thursday February 23, 2023. A national guardian has warned of negative cultures in trusts preventing workers from raising concerns as she called for a "cultural review" of ambulance organisations. - Kirsty O'Connor/PA

Just as Britain was turning secular, it was gaining a new religion: the NHS, the prized fruit of the then still-new welfare state. The NHS as state religion has continued, fairly unabated, through thick and thin – until now. The “envy of the world” no longer, the health service has become more of a monstrous lorry rattling off course than anything remotely resembling a pride and joy.

A tipping point has finally been reached. For the first time, the NHS’s loyal flock of worshippers is beginning to have doubts: more than half the country is now unhappy with the service. The British Social Attitudes survey, which has tracked public opinion since 1983, has found that A&E waiting times and the difficulty in obtaining GP appointments are among the factors driving disapproval to an all time high. Only 29 per cent of people said they were satisfied with the NHS.

During the pandemic, the heroic deeds of hospital staff – many of whom were among the first to get hit by the virus – were impossible to ignore, and the religion thrived.

Now the NHS’s deficiencies have become painfully obvious. Not only is the sub-par service harming individuals who need care, but the country – and particularly its economy – is suffering, too. Hundreds of thousands are unable to work because they are on lengthy waiting lists, with over a million people saying that the waits for treatment have meant they have had to postpone or cancel work. A quarter of these say they have had to reduce their working hours, while a tenth say they have signed off work as long-term sick.

The Chancellor wants to get a worryingly unproductive Britain back to work, but so long as the country depends on a health system that cannot give people treatment in a timely fashion, that project is bound to fail. The NHS has long been a sinking ship, but now it’s dragging the country down with it.