Leading doctors have warned that the NHS is facing a ‘triple whammy’ after years of underfunding that threatens the very integrity of our health service – and that the coronavirus pandemic is only one part of the problem.
BMA chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul told the BBC that chronic underfunding had weakened the health service so badly that even without the COVID-19 crisis it would be in trouble:
Honorary BMA vice-president Dr Kailash Chand agreed, adding that the NHS is 100,000 staff short of its proper complement – and pointing out that the vast majority of the Tories’ so-called extra ‘NHS funds’ are in fact going to private companies:
Winter crises in the NHS are not a new phenomenon – two years ago the Tories cancelled all non-urgent operations and before the pandemic bit this year, the NHS was already in yet another – and in recent years as underfunding has bitten ever deeper, they have become a year-round phenomenon.
And now, while the UK’s greatest achievement falls apart under the strain of a pandemic for which the Tories never bothered to prepare, they are using it as cover to enrich their mates and backers further still.
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