Wielding the axe

摘要

The axe is coining. But the NHS is considered sacrosanct and won't face cuts in spending; other public sector workers will take our pain. Now, I would go to the barricades to defend the NHS, but this protectionist policy is wrong, driven not by reason but a populist eye cast towards the next election. The NHS needs to share the pain of the public sector and indeed to demonstrate solidarity with workers in the private sector, who rightly believe that we are overpaid, overpensioned, and over-protected. Sparing the NHS fuels resentment and will serve no one. Recent projects such as new hospitals are welcome (although the private finance initiative means we will be paying for a generation to come), but the rest of the past decade's big spend has been too much, too quickly, with questionable benefit. There is plenty of waste: the time has come to rationalise, consolidate, prioritise, and even cut NHS services.