John Prescott
This week we heard a lot about the future of the NHS. In the past month I’ve seen at first hand how important it really is.
As I wrote the other week in this column, my little sister Viv suffered two heart attacks over Christmas and New Year.
Nurses and doctors did all they could to keep her alive. It gave her family the chance to see her, spend time with her, hold her hand.
To be with her when she needed us most.
But I also saw patients lined up in corridors, the fatigue and strain on the faces of staff doing everything they could to help while faced with a shortage of beds and a surge of people flocking to A&E.
Social care budget cuts and scrapping NHS Direct are just two factors that have forced more people into Accident and Emergency.
But NHS staff perform miracles every day and they twice saved my sister’s life. However, last week she died.
As we mourn, I just want to express on behalf of our family our deepest appreciation for the nurses, doctors and hospital staff of all nationalities who did so much to keep her alive.
They worked together to give her a soft landing not a crash one and for that we are eternally grateful.
Whatever the argument about the NHS, what cannot be disputed is the dedication, commitment and enthusiasm to care these modern-day angels give.
That’s why it’s vitally important we develop a long-term strategy for the NHS.
Andy Burnham made a great start this week with Labour’s plan to employ 36,000 nurses, doctors and social care workers, funded by a mansion tax on millionaires’ homes.
That’s not weaponising the NHS, Cameron. It’s making it fit for the 21st century. And our Viv would have loved that.
This week we heard a lot about the future of the NHS. In the past month I’ve seen at first hand how important it really is.
As I wrote the other week in this column, my little sister Viv suffered two heart attacks over Christmas and New Year.
Nurses and doctors did all they could to keep her alive. It gave her family the chance to see her, spend time with her, hold her hand.
To be with her when she needed us most.
But I also saw patients lined up in corridors, the fatigue and strain on the faces of staff doing everything they could to help while faced with a shortage of beds and a surge of people flocking to A&E.
Social care budget cuts and scrapping NHS Direct are just two factors that have forced more people into Accident and Emergency.
But NHS staff perform miracles every day and they twice saved my sister’s life. However, last week she died.
As we mourn, I just want to express on behalf of our family our deepest appreciation for the nurses, doctors and hospital staff of all nationalities who did so much to keep her alive.
They worked together to give her a soft landing not a crash one and for that we are eternally grateful.
Whatever the argument about the NHS, what cannot be disputed is the dedication, commitment and enthusiasm to care these modern-day angels give.
That’s why it’s vitally important we develop a long-term strategy for the NHS.
Andy Burnham made a great start this week with Labour’s plan to employ 36,000 nurses, doctors and social care workers, funded by a mansion tax on millionaires’ homes.
That’s not weaponising the NHS, Cameron. It’s making it fit for the 21st century. And our Viv would have loved that.
Stephen Dorrell agrees with him, and therefore not with Alan Milburn and John Hutton, which latter ought to have the Labour Whip in the Lords withdrawn.
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