Critics
believe that given the current economic state of the cash-strapped
NHS, it could run out money this year or the next year.
Marking
UK's National Health Service's (NHS) 70th anniversary, a national
health scheme that has strived to provide universal healthcare for
all, tens of thousands of supporters gathered to defend the health
scheme in central London Saturday.
Thousands
of protesters also marched White Hall Saturday to defend the NHS.
Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who was also part of the
demonstration, said he would "go to the end of the earth and
beyond" to defend it.
Speaking
to the crowds, the Labour leader explained: "We’re here
today on this amazing 70th birthday, here in Whitehall, yes to
celebrate, but do we have the absolute determination that we will go
to the end of the earth and beyond to defend our national health
service?"
Protesters
carried placards and banners reading "Standing together for the
NHS" and "NHS SOS" as they marched towards the
Parliament where politicians, TV stars and union leaders addressed
the rally.
Jack, a
Unison union member, the second largest trade union in the United
Kingdom, told Socialist Worker, "We’re here to show that
we’re not going to give up the fight. We had 49 come down on the
coach, but we've still got a picket line up in Wigan to keep
everything strong."
A
retired nurse, Alicia who traveled from Oxfordshire to join the
protest, told the Socialist Worker: "The NHS has been a
massive part of my life. I was involved in the 1981 nurses’ strike
while I was a student nurse."
"The
NHS needs a very good injection of money. They can do that by shaving
off the top wages of senior managers – we don’t need them, nurses
can manage wards."
Critics
believe that given the current economic state of the cash-strapped
NHS, it could run out money within the next year. With demand
increasing all the time, by 2021 the NHS will be over £30 billion
short of what it needs to provide an adequate service, free at the
point of use.
"It’s
not possible to have a £30bn gap," one senior NHS source
told the Independent. "It has to be paid from somewhere –
you would have to have emergency Treasury bailouts, which the
Treasury would be furious about."
The
rally organizers pointed out that government’s recently announced
funding boost was "simply not good enough" as protesters
were heard chanting, "shame on you Tories."
"It
is a symbol of an uncaring and cruel and divided society that so many
go through mental health stress, so many go through it alone, and so
many, sadly, take their own lives. I want to live in a society where
we have a health service worthy of the name paid for by all of us,
for all of us. It’s called socialism. I want to see the same
principles applied in education and in housing," Jeremy
Corbyn said, addressing the crowds.
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