(With a cheque from Kinnock) Tories head for "flag
day" NHS
By JOHN LISTER WITH many health authorities desperately strapped for cash as a result of rigid Tory cash limits, private charity funding even of basic services is gaining increased prominence.
February saw a major national outcry over the proposed closure of Guy's Hospital heart unit, which was f272.000 overspent after exceeding its quota for operations. A shutdown would have threatened the lives of up to 100 pa. tients on the waiting list.
After appeals to District and Regional health authorities and to the DHSS had failed to produce any extra funding an American millionaire (and supporter of NHS cutbacks) finally dipped into his wallet and made a donation of f272.000 to keep the unit open. The terms of the donation/ however meant operations it financed were conducted outside the NHS: the heart unit itself remains overspent, and may yet have to close for up to four months in the next financial year in order to balance its books - with teartul consequences to heart patients in the London area.
As the surgeon in charge of the Guy's heart unit said: "It is humiliating that charity should be necessary." But the Guy's case is far from unique.
Another embarrassing example is at Northwick Park hospital, equipped in the early 1970s, where cardiac equipment is becoming out and obsolete, with no NHS money available to replace it. The cardiac unit has now turned to the charitable efforts of the Brent and Harrow British Heart Foundation to raise funds for new machines: the unit treats more than 1.500 each year.
And London's Tory evening Standard newspaper - a diehard defender of Fowler's every cut - has been quick to make cheap capital out of promoting a £l million appeal for a body scanner at King's College Hospital. The Standard took up the campaign after a badly in. jured policeman was sent to the private Cromwell hospital for an body-scan. In fact some 350 patients a rear have tor some time been reterred lor body scans from King's to other Lon. don hospitals, NHS and private. Most of them didn't get police escorts to cross London quickly, as were provided for the policeman, but had to endure long
" sending sergea NOSE DONE ANE TO current recouries and heli that the controvers ever renal RENAL DIALYSIS ARE " . _ NOT AVAILABLE SANDAL TWO CHILDREN built and clapped emergency was happy to keep quiet. the Standard campaign "Miss World" tionary Authority, and declared that:
More hospital cuts in HOME NEWS HOME NEWS Confusion over C2m promise Hard-pressed health bodies leaves units short of cash may get Aids monitoring rule Liver transplant Economy drive centre closes puts laboratory to new patients centre at risk Babies are dying. Heart unit faces closure because hospitals are short of cash OLIVIA TIMOS examinas the prim findings ol a doctore ourray cant of shan her en indice Cold spell, cuts and more elderly cases cause beds shortage in Lopdon and Oxford Hospitals turn away emergency patients Et bat to pr bore mart. social NURSES AND comples social Baoes CHOOSE WHO TO 'SAVE BECAUSE RESOURCES FOR 1145 to for the and in renal care k ve en is a ioine decisio The enemy within GUY'S KIDS* TO A BED ON DANGER LIST journeys in rush-hour traffic, and long waits on arrival for the scan. But until a cop was inconvenienced, the Standard Among the "big names" roped in to tention was reac- organiser Eric Morley, who sits on Camberwell Health "Without such an appeal. King's has Socialist Viewpoint, No. 5, April 1985. Page 15
Thames area it NAS: 'cannot afford' care in community shake to u Too many operations, says health authority as patients 'near death" PEt Operation waiting-list 'gets longe Sick children turned away CRISIS HITS LIVER OPS as much chance of getting a scanner in the next 10 years as I have of climbing Mount Everest." The "Standard" campaign directs at- deliberately from the away question of whether such vital equip- ment should be provided and funded by the National Health Service, as it is by health services in many other countries. But many have been drawn - albeit
Cervical cancer hits the
with a slightly critical concern - into the "do-gooding" hysteria, Opposition leader Neil Kinnock, sent in his own cheque to the Standard appeal.
A few years ago, as newly promoted Shadow minister. Neil Kinnock himself was warning of the danger of a "flag day National Health Service" if Tory policies continued. Unless he changes track on donations to such appeals. Kinnock is likely to find himself busy writing cheques as his prophecies are fulfilled.
The government is keen to encourage charity funding, which no doubt gives the well-to-do a buzz of quiet satisfaction, while covering over some of the more glaring gaps in NHS provision.
The latest Budget announced the lifting of VAT on computers donated for medical use. It seems that health in Thatcher's Britain is headed once more for the dark ages of meagre charity provision for the poor, alongside expensive private schemes which ensure that the wealthy and the privileged the policies and impose the cuts do not suffer any indignity or discomfort as a result of inadequate state facilities.
By MARY LEWIS CERVICAL cancer is in the news for all the wrong reasons. About 2,000 women die a year of