Brexit has silenced those who want to break up the NHS | Denis Campbell

By pledging £350m for the NHS, leave campaigners have ensured the argument is about how to get the health service more money, not dismantle it

Last week, one of the country’s most senior doctors explained over lunch how he had reluctantly come to believe that scandalous underfunding, catastrophic understaffing and the service’s resulting inability to deal properly with the rising tide of illness mean that “the NHS is dying”.

Certainly there is plenty of evidence of stress and overburdening – long A&E waiting times, dangerous bed occupancy rates and delays in treatment are testament to that. But in the year that the NHS celebrates its 70th birthday, reassuringly few people think the health service has had its day.

Voters blame ministers rather than the service itself for its inability to be good all the time

Related: Leave campaign's £350m claim was too low, says Boris Johnson

Continue reading... March 20, 2018 at 06:30PM