More on NHS

Whilst one has every sympathy with the over-worked midwife who could not cope with "working regular 13 hour shifts", it is clear where the blame lies. The Royal College of Midwives is right to condemn the government "for failing to act on warnings" that more midwives are needed, but such failure by the coalition is beginning to look deliberate.The Tories and their Lib Dem puppets have already started their dismantling of the NHS, and will be looking to exploit such problems to further its aim of privatisation.With the coalition`s "economy with the truth" now reaching legendary status, it has become almost impossible to determine the difference between reality and propaganda,and we already know how this government proceeds with its privatisation programme, concentrating first on constant fault-finding of the state-owned institution for "justification", with the so-called failings, as is the case with midwifery, often the inevitable result of job and financial cuts made by the government itself! Individual examples of failure are highlighted to give misleading impressions of the NHS generally; huge media coverage follows, with the Mail, Express and even the BBC at the helm, leading to hysterical and alarmist conclusions; empirical evidence is ignored, and inaccurate data quoted repeatedly, with, of course, the costs to the taxpayer exaggerated. Remember Tory annoyance with the opening ceremony of the Olympics? The NHS is a main target for privatisation, with the overall aim being further reduction in the size and role of the state, and a mouth-watering pre-election promise of tax reductions to gullible Tory voters.

    This is not to deny the existence of problems within the NHS, but they are both inevitable, given the increased longevity of the population and the action of an unsympathetic government, and solvable, with public and future government support.