Thread by @Seven7Kevin

What is the “NHS’s dirty little secret”?

The front page of Friday's Daily Telegraph raised an eyebrow. And then I noticed who the author of this piece was, Kate Andrews.

So what is this "dirty little secret"?
A thread.
(1/25)

Before I do that, let’s just take a quick look at the author of this piece.

Kate Andrews is:
- a US citizen
- Economics Editor for The Spectator

Neither of these are mentioned in the article.

You might have seen her in her numerous appearances on the BBC.
(2/25)

Kate Andrews used to be:

- Associate Director at the opaquely-funded, climate-change denying, NHS-abolishing think-thank, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA)
- Head of Comms at the highly-opaque, neoliberal think-thank the Adam Smith Institute

Again, not mentioned.
(3/25)

The IEA and the Adam Smith Institute have quite a lot in common.

They’re both libertarian, right-wing and their sources of funding are opaque. But don’t just take my word for it. Here’s a chart from Transparify.org:
(4/25)

Kate was also spokesperson for Republicans Overseas UK.

The current chair of Republicans Overseas UK is Sarah Elliott.
Sarah Elliott is married to Matthew Elliott.
Matthew Elliot was the CEO of Vote Leave.

Isn’t it strange how all these people are connected.
(5/25)

Kate has a lot to say. Mostly about abolishing the NHS.

I don’t know why anyone would be so against the NHS. We all pay a small amount and it’s there for the benefit of everyone.

If you can and want to pay for private healthcare, go right ahead.
(6/25)

However, if you’re paid to espouse a particular point of view, I think it’s vitally important that your audience is aware of this. You have a vested interest and you ought to declare that.
(7/25)

Disclaimer

Here’s my vested interest. I am a UK citizen. I fund NHS services through my taxes. Any treatment received I have been very happy with and I’m grateful to everyone in the NHS. I am not being paid for this.

With that out of the way, on to the article…
(8/25)

The article itself starts off with the headline “The NHS is hiding a guilty little secret” and goes on to suggest that this “secret” is falling capacity.

But falling from what level?
And why should the NHS feel guilty about it?
(9/25)

Kate says that the number of hospital beds has fallen since 2019 pre-pandemic level. She goes on to say that the Nightingale hospitals were largely empty even at the height of the crisis.

And do you know what, she’s right.
But she ignores the reason why she’s right.
(10/25)

She admits that the number of adult critical care beds in England increased during “the most difficult months of the pandemic”.

She then adds that “that success has been squandered and the increased capacity has not been sustained”.
(11/25)

Let’s just be clear about the increased capacity.

That happened during the pandemic.

We asked everyone in the NHS to push themselves beyond anything they thought possible. And they did it.

Often at high personal cost.

We can’t expect that forever.
(12/25)

It’s not really beds that the NHS is short of. A trip down to the nearest out-of-town retail park won’t solve any problem the NHS has.

A bed without Doctors, Nurses, Porters, administrators and an array of supporting staff is next to useless.
(13/25)

The NHS doesn’t have a bed shortage. It has a staff shortage. And this isn’t new.

Kate admits this, but doesn’t link it back to her comments about bed. Again, the bed is useless without the right staff. This is why the Nightingales were empty. Nobody to staff them.
(14/25)

She says that the BMA suggested up to 1 in 3 doctors may retire early due to stressful conditions and in the same sentence says that Doctor’s pay is low compared to those in “market-based systems” a code word for Pay-Per-Use. This is her assertion, not that of the BMA.
(15/25)

Do you know what doesn’t fix stress?

More money.
Assuming you have enough to meet basic needs, of course.
(16/25)

What would be likely to relieve stress in the NHS?

More Doctors, Nurses, Porters, Admin and other staff to reduce everyone’s workload.

Who could fix that? Only the Government. But they haven't done that. They have done the opposite.
(17/25)

Kate concludes, saying that we are “asked to sacrifice our liberties for the sake of a health service that has not only failed to progress but [..] moved backwards”

Our sacrifice protects people.
People who might be vulnerable.
It’s that simple.

It’s basic humanity.
(18/25)

What this comes down to is a staffing crisis in the NHS.

Again, who can fix that? The Government.
Did they do it? No.
(19/25)

According to the most recent statistics from the NHS there are 99,460 vacancies in NHS England.

Some of these positions may be covered by agency or temporary staff, but the vacancy is still counted as open.
(20/25)

The source data for the line graph is here: (21/25)
digital.nhs.uk/data-and-infor…

I wonder if anything happened to cause large numbers of people to leave the NHS? Any suggestions?

Every one of the GPs at my local practice ten years ago has since retired. I wonder why they all did that?

And why has it got a lot worse since 2016?
(22/25)

The NHS staffing crisis is a long term issue.

We have had one party in Government since 2010 and they haven’t addressed this problem adequately.

In fact, they have made it worse. Privatising the delivery of healthcare doesn’t magic up extra Doctors or Nurses.
(23/25)

Nobody in the #NHS has anything to feel guilty about. You have done us proud. You have worked miracles with very limited and often dwindling resources. #thankyouNHS
(24/25)

I have nothing personal against Kate Andrews.

I just think people should know who's paying her to say these things.

I think the real “dirty little secret” is why Kate Andrews continually advocates for the abolition of the NHS.
(25/25)