The best in the world?

 A Tom Robinson Band song, “Power In The Darkness”, 1978, lampoons the attitudes of the British right wing establishment. One line reads,  “Even our magnificent police force are no longer safe from those who would undermine our society, and it's about time we said ‘enough is enough.’ “Glad to be Gay” continues the theme, “The British Police are the best in the world” by ‘not believing’ that the arm of the State is raiding Gay pubs and clubs for no reason and assaulting them for being queer. Dixon of Dock Green is long gone. Who still believes they are magnificent or the best?

The myth that the NHS is the best in the world is still perpetuated by the representatives of the ruling class. Take a look on social media for innumerable stories of suffering and misery caused by an organisation that no longer functions as intended. Like most things in society the NHS is run by the working class. The impossible we do straight away, miracles take a shade longer. It would seem that despite the efforts of those working in the health service miracles are now completely out of stock.

Note, this is a Socialist Blog, miracles are not subscribed to. The ‘real miracle’ (intentional irony) is how the working class have been persuaded to give their support to Capitalism for such a long time when it is so obviously in need of replacement by Socialism

“Delays in British emergency departments could be causing between 300 and 500 deaths each week, Royal College of Emergency Medicine President Dr Adrian Boyle has told Times Radio.

According to data from NHS England, 37,837 patients waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to emergency departments in November, up from 10,646 in November 2021. Although figures for December have yet to be released, Boyle told the Times that he’d be “amazed” if they weren’t the worst on record.

“What we’re seeing now in terms of these long waits is being associated with increased mortality, and we think somewhere between 300-500 people are dying as a consequence of delays and problems with urgent and emergency care each week,” he said, in remarks quoted by multiple British media outlets on Sunday.

“We need to actually get a grip of this,” he continued. “We need to increase our capacity within our hospitals, we need to make sure that there are alternative ways so that people aren’t all just funnelled into the ambulance service and emergency department.”

While hospitals are typically more crowded in winter, this season saw strikes by nurses and ambulance staff in December, and a virulent outbreak of influenza in recent weeks. According to NHS data, 3,746 people per day were hospitalized with the flu in the week leading up to Christmas, up from 2,088 per day a week earlier.

While cases of Covid-19 remain low throughout the UK, staff absences due to the virus were up more than 47% in December compared to November, the Guardian reported."

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Dave C.