Most doctors think ministers want to destroy NHS, BMA boss says

Most frontline medics believe ministers are seeking to “destroy the NHS” because they have starved it of cash and mistreated its staff, the leader of Britain’s doctors has said.

Prof Philip Banfield also warned that the health service, which on Wednesday will mark the 75th anniversary of its creation, is so fragile that it may not survive until its 80th.

Banfield, the British Medical Association’s chair of council, mounted an unusually strong attack on the government’s handling of the NHS in an interview with the Guardian.

“This government has to demonstrate that it is not setting out to destroy the NHS, which it is failing to do at this point in time,” he said. “It is a very common comment that I hear, from both doctors and patients, that this government is consciously running the NHS down. [And] if you run it down far enough, it’s going to lead to destruction.

“You’ll struggle to find someone [among doctors] on the frontline who thinks otherwise, because that’s what it feels like.”

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Source: The Guardian, 4 July 2023