Stop. Let’s tell the real story.

Here’s how I’ve seen austerity hurting the NHS through my work as an Occupational Therapist.

As an Australian moving to the UK in early 2016 I was genuinely surprised by the amount of conversations I’d get into with people about their utmost love for the NHS. I found it reassuring, a uniting force. The NHS is part of British people’s DNA, but as a nation 82% of us are worried about the future of this countries lifeblood.

Here’s the real story. As an occupational therapist, I was flung into what I can only describe as the boiling hot mess of the NHS maimed by years of austerity under Tory government. As a locum agency worker, I was making up part of the bandaid solution to extraordinarily high staff turnover rates, plugging holes in teams that were disintegrating, completing short term contracts whilst the services struggle desperately to recruit. Managers have become full-time recruiters, detracting from the real issues needing to be addressed on the ground. Thousands of precious hours are being put into inducting new staff. New faces are needing to get up to speed quickly in teams that can’t afford the time to really help someone to settle in because they are already doing the work of three others.

I’ve been in my current role in an inpatient unit for just over three months. In that time, in the small therapies team alone, eight, yes eight, staff have left. In three months. In a team that, if fully staffed, is made up of only 17 people. Bright, young team members too. This meant wards were provided with bare minimum activities being offered for patients, therapists were having to be ruthless in deciding on the patients who were seen — those of the highest priority only, and staff sickness went up as the team felt more and more stretched.

And I’ve not even got to the nurses — the backbone of the NHS. 200 000 NHS nurses have quit since the Tories entered government. Austerity measures have led to a staff shortage crisis point for Britain’s beloved NHS. And austerity leads to poorer health outcomes in those already facing inequality which has led to a soaring demand for services that haven’t got the resources to handle this.

It’s telling that 87% of Brits are proud of the NHS yet in 2018 only half of people report they were satisfied with the service they received when they needed it. In comparison, satisfaction hit a high of 70% in 2010 under a New Labour government. The main reason people gave for being dissatisfied with the NHS were staff shortages and long waiting times. Under a Tory government this level of satisfaction has continued to sink year on year.

When your loved one becomes ill, do you want them being pushed to the bottom of the queue because the health of others is being prioritised above theirs? Do you want to be nursed by someone that’s been in the job a week and is still learning the ropes? Do you want your elderly relative to be denied activities to help brighten their day as they spend weeks on end in care because there simply isn’t the staff to offer them?

Brits are right to be proud of their NHS. But the reality of free world-class healthcare for all is fading. The UK should return to being a leading example of a country that provides for its people. The NHS can once again be great. But not under a Tory government.

We are Stop. Let’s tell the real story. Click here and here to read just some of our testimony to inequality in the UK. We’d like to tell your story of austerity too. Sign up to hear how.