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WORLD NEWS Monday 29 January 2018

Winter flu, Brexit put beloved UK health service on sickbed

By JILL LAWLESS pletely systemic." of emergency-room pa-
Associated Press Few institutions are more tients within four hours.
LONDON (AP) — This winter, central to British life than Brexit has brought new
a daily drip of grim stories the NHS, founded in 1948 complications. Britain's
from Britain's health care in a country determined to vote in June 2016 to leave
system has triggered a build a fairer society out of the 28-nation EU — and
flood of alarm. the ruins of war. It remains end the automatic right of
An 81-year-old woman with a source of pride for many EU citizens to live in the U.K.
chest pains died while wait- that Britain provides free — threw the future of 3 mil-
ing four hours for an ambu- health care to all, funded lion Europeans in Britain into
lance. A young woman in through taxation. Politi- doubt. That has prompted
pain lay for five hours on cians from across the politi- some to leave and de-
a hospital floor. Patients cal spectrum extol the NHS terred other Europeans
across the country have and pledge to support it. from moving in.
been treated in corridors It's also an unwieldy behe- That has made it harder
or stuck in ambulances moth that employs more to recruit EU medical staff,
because there are no free than 1 million people and who make up about 5 per-
hospital beds. struggles to cope with ris- Junior National Health Service (NHS) doctors wave placards re- cent of NHS employees.
These are not the usual ing demand. This winter has ferring to British Conservative Party Secretary of State for Health, The Nursing and Midwifery
winter aches and pains of brought a perfect storm of Jeremy Hunt, during a protest outside St Thomas Hospital in Lon- Council says in the year to
a health service in heavy pressures, as the worst flu don. This winter has brought a daily drip of grim stories from Brit- September 2017, the num-
ain's health care system, and experts say alarm bells should be
demand, medics and ex- season in several years and ringing across the entire system. ber of European nurses and
perts say, but a nationwide a bad outbreak of winter (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) midwives joining the U.K.'s
crisis triggered by years of vomiting bug exacerbated "I could hear my son up- become commonplace. professional register fell 89
underfunding. And Britain's the effects of a long-term stairs shouting in pain. At Partly, the problem is mon- percent while the number
decision to leave the Eu- funding squeeze. Authori- the end of all this, (the dis- ey. Since Britain's Conser- leaving rose 67 percent.
ropean Union next year is ties have had to cancel patcher) said they couldn't vative-led government With more British nurses
making the situation worse thousands of operations send an ambulance. I was introduced spending cuts also quitting, that means
for the National Health Ser- and delay treatments, utterly shocked," she said. in 2010 in the wake of the more nurses left the profes-
vice, a state-funded system causing mounting anger Murphy drove her son to global financial crisis, NHS sion last year than joined.
that's both revered and among patients and staff. a hospital, where doctors funding has grown about “You can’t just keep pump-
criticized. Glynis Murphy, an aca- found a ruptured appen- 1 percent a year. But de- ing more funding into the
"It's not like there's a few demic in southern England, dix and operated. The am- mand is growing some 4 NHS,” Anandaciva said.
bad apples or poorly per- phoned for an ambulance bulance service expressed percent, as the British popu- “You have to make some
forming organizations," said earlier this month for her regret but said there had lation gets larger and older. hard choices ... at some
John Appleby, chief econ- son, who had worsening been no ambulances to Most British hospitals rou- point, the love for the NHS
omist at health think-tank abdominal pain for two send due to high demand. tinely miss targets such as a may become a barrier to
the Nuffield Trust. "It's com- days. Stories like Murphy's have promise to treat 95 percent change.” q