Critical Quotes

“Politicians have found it too easy to make empty promises. Margaret Thatcher claimed that ‘the NHS is safe in our hands’43 before creating an internal marketplace within the service. Tony Blair’s election manifesto in 1997 claimed that only Labour could ‘save the NHS’,44 and he then proceeded to enable many of the PFI projects that burden the NHS with billions of pounds of debt repayment every single year. And David Cameron, not to be outdone, declared in his first speech following the General Election in 2015 that the NHS ‘will be safe in his hands “for every generation to come”’.45 And while politicians have evaded proper scrutiny, dismissing concerns and making empty statements, their real work happens behind the scenes.”
― Dr Julia Grace Patterson, Critical: Why the NHS is being betrayed and how we can fight for it

“The World Health Organization’s 1995 definition of privatisation within healthcare is ‘a … process in which non-government actors become increasingly involved in the financing and/or provision of health care services’.38 And this is exactly what is happening in the NHS.”
― Dr Julia Grace Patterson, Critical: Why the NHS is being betrayed and how we can fight for it

“It was Thatcher and her government who began the long trajectory that has led us to a situation where thousands of NHS services in England are now run by external providers including private companies.”
― Dr Julia Grace Patterson, Critical: Why the NHS is being betrayed and how we can fight for it

“The provision of public healthcare across the UK provides a bedrock of support that has shaped our society for the past 75 years.”
― Dr Julia Grace Patterson, Critical: Why the NHS is being betrayed and how we can fight for it

“In total, between 2008/09 and 2020, 32,000 overnight hospital beds were cut in the NHS in England.3”
― Dr Julia Grace Patterson, Critical: Why the NHS is being betrayed and how we can fight for it