Giles Fraser
NHS reform is like
the Reformation of the church, health secretary Jeremy Hunt told the
British Medical Association this week.
Well, I couldn’t agree more.
But why
does he seem to assume that the Reformation was an unambiguously good thing?
For when it came to healthcare in England, it was an absolute disaster.
Beginning in 1536, Henry VIII –
that psychopathic villain of kings – set about a series of legal procedures to
dismantle the monasteries of England. To him, they represented the powerbase of
allegiance to some foreign ideology.
Not that Henry cared all that much about
the likes of Luther or Calvin. Someone of Henry’s priapic dispositions wasn’t
going to be all that persuaded by the reforming zeal of a few protestant
fun-sponges with boring clothes and funny accents.
No, what he hated most about
the Catholic church was that it told him no – it denied him a divorce. And in
his childish rage, he tore up the country.
The monasteries, of course, were
the NHS of their day. And the Benedictine monasteries in particular were
prototypes of the modern hospital.
They provided universal healthcare, free at
the point of delivery. Here medical texts were collected and studied. Here
various forms of good medical practice were developed and passed on – all in a
context of care, rest and welcome.
As Guenter
Risse puts it in his book on the history of hospitals: “From the
start, providing hospitality and healing the sick became key responsibilities
of European monasteries, reflective of both the inward and worldly missions
they had assumed.
“As in the east, early Christian welfare in Europe targeted
paupers as well as pilgrims. Many were rural peasants, legally free, possibly
even owners of small plots who had suffered hard times.”
Indeed, the rule of St Benedict specifically commits
Benedictine monks to the care of the sick stranger: “Before all things and
above all things, special care must be taken of the sick or infirm so that they
may be served as if they were Christ in person; for He himself said ‘I was sick
and you visited me’, and ‘what you have done for the least of mine, you have
done for me’.”
There was no distinction made between the rich or the poor. The vagrant, the pilgrim, the merchant or the knight – all were welcomed and looked after.
Of course, Henry’s other motive was money. He needed to replenish his coffers to feed his taste for foreign wars.
So the 2m acres of land held by the monasteries, and their accumulated wealth, was an obvious target for aggressive takeover.
Ignoring the fact that he was laying waste to a whole healthcare infrastructure, in shutting down the monasteries and stealing their money, Henry was tapping a new revenue stream.
And in order to justify what was one of the greatest acts of criminal vandalism in history, Henry was happy to encourage all sorts of base propaganda against his own unwanted national health service.
It was staffed by overfed monks, superstitiously attached to old ideas – so came the slurs from Erasmus and the like. Ring any bells?
The NHS is bloated, dominated by a socialist mentality – so come the Tory slurs.
Speaking at a conference organised by the King’s Fund, Hunt reminded his audience that “Nigel Lawson famously described the NHS as a national religion.
“The problem with religions is that when you question the prevailing orthodoxy, you can end up facing the Spanish inquisition”.
As you can see, Hunt’s fondness for the Reformation comparison is considerable. As indeed is his willingness to buy into cheap anti-Catholic stereotypes.
Of course, Hunt may be unaware of all this history. Though I doubt it.
His old school, Charterhouse – where he was head boy – was founded in the buildings of an old Carthusian monastery in Smithfield – a monastery that was also disbanded by Henry VIII in 1537.
And the prior, John Houghton, was hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, and nine of his monks were starved to death in Newgate prison.
For many, that was the reality of the Reformation. That, and destitution for the patients they served.
OK, even I don’t suppose that is what Hunt has in mind for the NHS, however brutal his planned cutbacks. But it was a stupid comparison.
Of course, Henry’s other motive was money. He needed to replenish his coffers to feed his taste for foreign wars.
So the 2m acres of land held by the monasteries, and their accumulated wealth, was an obvious target for aggressive takeover.
Ignoring the fact that he was laying waste to a whole healthcare infrastructure, in shutting down the monasteries and stealing their money, Henry was tapping a new revenue stream.
And in order to justify what was one of the greatest acts of criminal vandalism in history, Henry was happy to encourage all sorts of base propaganda against his own unwanted national health service.
It was staffed by overfed monks, superstitiously attached to old ideas – so came the slurs from Erasmus and the like. Ring any bells?
The NHS is bloated, dominated by a socialist mentality – so come the Tory slurs.
Speaking at a conference organised by the King’s Fund, Hunt reminded his audience that “Nigel Lawson famously described the NHS as a national religion.
“The problem with religions is that when you question the prevailing orthodoxy, you can end up facing the Spanish inquisition”.
As you can see, Hunt’s fondness for the Reformation comparison is considerable. As indeed is his willingness to buy into cheap anti-Catholic stereotypes.
Of course, Hunt may be unaware of all this history. Though I doubt it.
His old school, Charterhouse – where he was head boy – was founded in the buildings of an old Carthusian monastery in Smithfield – a monastery that was also disbanded by Henry VIII in 1537.
And the prior, John Houghton, was hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, and nine of his monks were starved to death in Newgate prison.
For many, that was the reality of the Reformation. That, and destitution for the patients they served.
OK, even I don’t suppose that is what Hunt has in mind for the NHS, however brutal his planned cutbacks. But it was a stupid comparison.
Luther was a canny fella ... liked beer and sausages, loved song and dance, married a nun on the run, rocked with a lute and invented the Christmas tree.
ReplyDeleteThat's why psycho Harry and Geneva boy were down on him.