I cannot put it more bluntly: as a doctor I consider it my public duty to urge votes against the Tories, and votes for Labour. And I’m not alone. Hundreds of NHS workers shared their fears of a Conservative election victory on social media under the hashtag #mypublicduty yesterday. The reason is simple. The last seven years of austerity have been built on the graves of tens of thousands of people.
Only a few months ago the Red Cross took the unprecedented step of announcing that the NHS was in the midst of a “humanitarian crisis”. The Red Cross is right. And that crisis continues. In the fifth richest country in the world people are dying needlessly.
A slow, grinding structural violence has pervaded this country – and bearing the brunt are the most vulnerable. Mental health patients, unable to care for themselves, are dying in their homes, denied access to dangerously rationed mental health services. Some are discovered, having died alone, days or even weeks after their deaths.
Migrants are increasingly hassled for payment as they recover from NHS emergency care. Elderly patients are dying suddenly and unexpectedly on understaffed medical wards. Disabled benefit recipients are forced to justify their inability to work during their last few months of life. Ambulance services are increasingly overstretched, causing unacceptable delays in reaching people in need. And suicide rates continue their upwards trend, especially among my female nursing colleagues.
The death toll is rising. We have seen the biggest annual rise in overall death rates in 50 years. Research carried out at Oxford University shows that trends over the past four years may soon result in the highest death rates since the second world war.
Yet the Conservatives remain silent about this collateral damage – or worse, often seek to cover it up. If you want an example of “post-truth” politics just listen to every single pronouncement on the NHS that Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt have made over the past six months.
An ethical choice lies before us on 8 June. It’s a choice that will have consequences for years to come.
A Labour government will legislate for safe staffing levels, restore bursary funding for NHS students, lift the 1% NHS pay cap imposed by the government (which is resulting in a recruitment crisis and hardship for countless health workers), work collaboratively with health sector unions rather than undermining them, and value carers in the community by increasing their allowance.
Labour will end the grip of private finance, which has drained billions in funding to pay for interest on loans to big banks; and reverse privatisation that uses our taxes to line the pockets of companies such as Virgin, while services are downgraded or scrapped.
I know that for some, especially first-time Labour voters, a vote for Labour may cause trepidation. So, how will all this be paid for? By bringing corporation tax in line with European norms, reversing Tory tax breaks to super-rich individuals, and clamping down on tax avoidance. The result will be ample funding to provide healthcare to all who need it. Ending privatisation and tackling debt will allow us to reclaim the billions in taxpayer-subsidised private profits, and redirect our money where it belongs – into our health service.
And before you think that polling makes 8 June a foregone conclusion, an election is not a spectator sport. We are not simply observers, we are participants. We have agency and control. By campaigning and voting in line with our consciences we can overcome the odds.
Many who care about the future of our NHS may think that the Liberal Democrats are a good bet. But a vote for the Lib Dems is worse than a wasted vote. It’s a vote for a party that was a crucial enabler of the coalition’s most pernicious health policies. The Lib Dems will now pay lip service to supporting the NHS to gain votes – and then, if they return in another coalition government, won’t hesitate to pick up where they left off in 2015: carving up the NHS with their Conservative allies.
Clement Attlee’s Labour government created our NHS, and only Labour can be trusted to restore it. For me, the choice at this election couldn’t be clearer.