Illustration by John Sadler www.johnsadlerillustration.com 

• SO here we are; in the middle of the largest industrial action by National Health Service staff for decades.

Many member of the public are right behind the nurses and doctors in their claims for more money after having been sidelined for more than 10 years.

At the opposite pole there are hundreds of thousands who are struggling with cancelled appointments for consultations and procedures.

Make no mistake; there will be casualties in all of this.

I have heard of one man whose appendix burst who was told by the surgeon who eventually treated him that he was lucky to be alive, so far had the infection spread.

In all of this, the government remain intransigent. And let’s be quite clear, it is only the government who can bring this crisis to a resolution.

They have not sleepwalked into this situation. Both Conservative and Labour governments have played a part.

Think “value for money” and “choice”. Not only are there good values and choices but there are also bad value and choices which have bad financial and clinical outcomes.

So when the health secretary stands up in a crisis and says that they are going to put £20billion into the NHS, how much of this will end up in the private sector where work has been commissioned, or “chosen” by hospital trusts, and not as wages?

In all of this the number of NHS beds has halved over the last 30 years, down from 300,000 to 135,000, in the cause of efficiency.

Who has done this? The government or hospital trusts. And where have the savings gone? Certainly not into the pockets of the staff running the hospitals.

The issue of bed-blockers has shown another area where government has missed the point. Some sources say that up to a third of patients are fit and able to be moved on.

The problem is that there is no care plan because there is no money, until the government and local authorities provide some.

And what, in the interim, happens to the patients who require a bed? “Oh, there are none because we reduced the number of beds to become more efficient.”

How many of these patients go into private hospitals, paid for by the NHS? And so it goes on! But there is no money for staff who have not been brought into parity for over 10 years.

Better not to talk about the growing private sector apart from suggesting that it must be very busy right now!

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED, NW1