9 November 2012 (Just) - Dear Dairy # 8

Dear dairy,

please help me to answer my question, for I am terribly confused. It seems a hospital can go bust and shut down - a bit like a small retail dairy business that cannot service its debts. But this hospital exists within something called The National Health Service, that is generally accepted by the population of this country to be worth keeping. It isn't a commercial enterprise based on risk taking by rational actors that can choose to take the risk or not, and can choose how much risk to take in return for reward.

It gives access to the alleviation of suffering and life-saving treatment to the whole population. It is a major saving grace of this country and helps to define what we are. It is civilizing.
But hospitals are being deemed to have gone bust and are being shut down or given to the private sector. They are dismantling the NHS by stealth. Little by little. The people who are doing it do not use the NHS. They book themselves into Harley Street.

We will lose everything unless we defend it. Why are we letting this happen? Too late once it's gone.