“Since
Blair, the NHS has been sold off piece by piece. Now, the mendacious
Matt Hancock and fellow Tory extremists are accelerating privatisation
under cover of a state of fear. It’s a power grab. Wake up. Get
angry. Or the NHS is lost.” JOHN PILGER
The
windows in my street are full of rainbows and “Thank You NHS”
signs. On Thursday evenings the occupants stand outside their homes
and give audible expression for their gratitude.
That
is important, yes, but we must recognise that the NHS has already been
cut to pieces and ‘profitted’ off. I've had first-hand
evidence of this from my own hospital experiences as I spat out the
results of Serco catering: the morning breakfasts of damp, cold toast trucked in from Swansea.
Matt
Hancock recently put Serco in charge of the phone lines for Covid-19
contact tracing. At the same time, the company G4s was awarded the contract for
testing and providing security at the ‘phantom’ Nightingale
hospitals. Meanwhile, Capita are recruiting returning doctors and
nurses. Deloitte's, with their expertise of helping government to
privatise our national resources, are advising on PPE. Oh—and Amazon are delivering testing
kits, the ones that are recorded as having been sent, but never
reached their destinations.
There is no
record of any of this important health work being carried out by the
actual NHS. One more thing—the Royal Mail workers offer to deliver the kits for
free was ignored.
The
biggest scandal of all are Covid-19 deaths in care homes. Three
years ago, in a government simulation of an influenza
epidemic, Exercise Cygnus forewarned us as to what a Covid-19 type crisis could do in
care homes. Its conclusion was that the UK was woefully unprepared. The report was hushed up
with Matt Hancock telling us that, “Everything that was recommended
was done.” The Chief Executive of Care England, Martin Green,
declared this to be a lie.
Covid-19
has swept through care homes, killing nearly 7,000 up to 1 May. I
personally know of a premier North London home which has recorded a death rate of 25%.
This is, I guess, the price we have to pay for ‘herd immunity’
and for keeping the anti-semite Jeremy Corbyn out of power.
