Condition critical? Britain's beloved but battered National Health Service turns 75
The U.K. is celebrating the 75th birthday of its beloved but increasingly creaky National Health Service
LONDON (AP) — It’s unusual to throw a birthday party for a health care system, but that’s exactly what the U.K. is doing for the National Health Service, a beloved but increasingly creaky institution that turns 75 on Wednesday.
The date is being marked with charity tea parties, royal visits and a service of thanksgiving at London’s Westminster Abbey. The events are a fitting tribute for an institution that is often likened to Britain’s secular religion – though one in which some people are losing faith.
Backlogs, treatment delays, funding gaps and an unhappy workforce have created an increasingly threadbare and overstretched system. Three respected health think tanks warned Wednesday that the NHS is “in critical condition” and won’t make it to 100 without more money and better long-term planning.
“Pressures on services are extreme, and public satisfaction is at its lowest since it first began to be tracked 40 years ago,” the King’s Fund, Health Foundation and Nuffield Trust said in an open letter. But, they added, “despite this, public support for the NHS as an institution is rock solid.”
