Column: NHS should be protected, not eroded

IN HIS latest column for The Correspondent, Andrew Gwynne MP celebrates the National Health Service – and looks at the challenges it faces.

EARLIER this month, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the NHS.

17 Prime Ministers, three Monarchs, a global pandemic and the advent of the internet, a lot has changed since the NHS was launched back in 1948 at Park Hospital (now Trafford Hospital) in Manchester.

What has remained the same, however, is the founding principle of the NHS – that it should be publicly funded and free at the point of need.

This principle has underpinned all of the major achievements of the NHS over the last 75 years; things like free breast cancer screening, the introduction of IVF, the rollout of polio and diphtheria vaccinations, organ donations – the list goes on and on.

But all of these achievements wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless work of NHS staff.

I can still remember the names of the staff who cared for my dad when he was reaching the end of his life and am still beyond grateful to the staff who helped with the birth of my children.

Andrew Gwynne MP

The NHS is a national institution, but it is also deeply personal.

Like many people in Tameside, I’m really worried about the current state of the NHS.

Soaring waiting times, under-staffed services and crumbling infrastructure are threatening the survival of a service that we all hold dear.

It is absolutely essential, then, that politicians get to work on building an NHS fit for the future.

This ambition occupies a lot of my time as Labour’s Shadow Public Health Minister because I know how incredible the NHS can be when it is given the support, tools, and reform it needs.

I was elected to Parliament in 2005 and can remember the record low waiting times and record high levels of public satisfaction.

That memory serves as a reminder – and an inspiration – that things can and will be different, and that the NHS will once again be the envy of the world if we can give it the support it needs.

This work cannot come soon enough. Local people, and people right across the country, deserve an NHS that works for them and is there when they need it.

So, I would like to take a moment to thank the NHS staff right across Tameside for the phenomenal work they do, and I look forward to continuing to defend, protect and enhance our wonderful NHS in Parliament and beyond.