Is The NHS On The Verge of Collapse?

Hiba Ul-Hasan, BA History

e National Health Service (NHS) has been experiencing one of its most serious crises since its founding in 1948. Along with rising living costs due to in ation, the NHS is on its last legs, attempting to meet increasing demands. e NHS has had a shortage of medical professionals, a lack of resources during the COVID-19 pandemic, increased A&E wait times, cancellation of scheduled surgeries, and longer waiting lists in recent years.

During the pandemic, the NHS bore the weight of the Coronavirus. Due to the large number of patients who required life-saving treatment and support, entire hospital wings were lled with patients infected by COVID. e development of the seven Nightingale hospitals, with the ExCeL convention centre providing 500 intensive care beds, was intended to relieve pressures on the NHS and to alleviate the struggle for hospital beds.

But a poll of 1007 participants performed in April 2020 revealed that two-thirds of sta respondents thought there was a shortage of PPE accessible and that only half believed frontline workers had received adequate training. 90% of interviewees felt that a call for a lockdown early would have reduced the spread of the virus.

Even before the pandemic took place, the NHS had a huge number of sta vacancies, and millions of people were on treatment waiting lists. ere were few GP appointments available due to a shortage of medical sta , prompting individuals to go to A&E in the hope of being seen by a medical expert. According to the RCEM, the average reported waiting time at the A&E is 12 hours before being discharged, a ecting 4.3% of patients seeking emergency care in 2021.

As a result, according to the most recent BSA study, public satisfaction with the NHS declined by 17% between 2020 and e report also alleges that the government has been the rst time, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is going on strike, and ambulance workers are expected to join them.

2021, reaching 36%. is was the lowest recorded score since 1997, as well as the largest year-on-year reduction in history.

However, this did not imply that the public did not value the work of the NHS. e weekly ‘Clap for Carers’ showered public appreciation on frontline employees. According to the Common Public Account Committee, 80% of the general public recognised the NHS as having a ‘serious’ or ‘severe’ nancing problem.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer demanded that the Prime Minister bear some responsibility for the NHS crisis during one of the Prime Minister’s Questions sessions in the House of Commons. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak accused Labour leader Keir Starmer of opposing anti-strike legislation, claiming the government was ‘rapidly implementing measures...to relieve pressure in urgent and emergency care departments.’ underinvesting by not nancing the NHS in accordance with the growing demand and by making jobs unappealing by overworking and underpaying employees. According to the Common Public Account Committee’s research, the UK health department was too quick to give Covid contracts, citing the £37 billion failed test-and-trace system as an example, which is attributed to the Conservative Party’s intention to privatise the health care system.

Sir Keir told BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that it would take at least a decade for his party to repair the current NHS crisis and tackle the economic catastrophe. He stated that in order to continue the public service that the NHS delivers, the private sector may need to be used.

Multiple strikes have occurred in recent months as the GMB and UNISON unions demanded pay increases above in ation. Despite the government’s provision of a 4.75% pay increase for all NHS employees, the latest gures show that it is less than half of the current in ation rate. As a result, for e gami cation of warfare has been a long-discussed debate in recent years surrounding the military increasing physical and psychological detachment from ghting that now occurs, alongside the extent of the realism some video games emulate to real-life war experiences. Warfare technology is now so advanced that the shooter and insurgent could be half a mile away from each other and still administer a lethal weapon. is distance between the shooter and insurgent makes it easier for individuals to pull the trigger and detach from their target and, therefore, their actions. No longer is combat-led ghtin g a predominant feature in warfare, and with this, the grasp of the extent of their actions, of taking a human life, is more dehumanised.

Prince Harry has been under re recently for revelations made in his autobiography ‘Spare’, regarding his actions during the time he spent ghting in the military. Amongst other revelations, Prince Harry spoke of how he killed 25 people while ghting for the British Armed Forces. ‘My number is 25. It’s not a number that lls me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me.’ Even more chilling, Prince Harry went on to explain that you cannot hurt an individual if you don’t see them as a human being in the rst place. e army uses tactics to help its soldiers detach from their actions while ghting by pushing a narrative of them and us. ey are trained to look at their targets as the ‘other’ and dehumanise them to enable them to carry out their orders e ectively.

Prince Harry goes on to explain that he saw his missions as a chess board, and the people as the chess pieces, slowly eliminating them as he went. Harry explains that ‘it’s not possible to kill someone if you see them as a human being’ and that the dehumanisation that occurred in the ghting on behalf of our armed forces also feeds into the gamication of war and how warfare is dangerously becoming similar to video games such as Call of Duty and Battle eld.

Video games and actual warfare interactions have become close to indistinguishable, the army has revealed how they use this technology as part of their military training. e Red Cross has noticed the increasing realism that these video games are emulating and are working with producers to enhance their compliance with International Humanitarian Law. We know the impact these video games have on young people’s psyches, so the chilling realism they depict regarding their similarity to real-life warfare is a worrying revelation.

Prince Harry’s shocking revelations have led to a division of opinion when it comes to how candidly he spoke about his actions while ghting for the British Armed Forces. Former U.K military o cers like Richard Kemp have criticised the revelations in his publication as it could ‘provoke the Taliban and their followers to carry out attacks against the UK.’ is comes a er the Taliban swi ly responded to Prince Harry’s statement saying: ‘ e ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans; they had families who were waiting for their return.’ e former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West, told the Sunday Mirror that Prince Harry was putting the future of his Invictus Games into jeopardy and that his revelation was ‘very stupid.’ ere are potential real-life security rami cations for Prince Harry’s revelations, and this is the reason why individuals in the army do not publicly discuss their kill counts.

However, on the ip side, Jessica Wolfendale, a professor of philosophy at Case Western Reserve University’s Inamori International Centre for Ethics and Excellence, says that there are bigger questions to be asked regarding Prince Harry’s revelations. She believes that the attitude that he has presented is one that is representative of the entire British Forces and is not an anomaly. She maintains that this publication brings to life the type of training members receive, and emphasises the increasing physical and psychological distance that individuals experience from their targets thanks to the almost gami cation of warfare. Individuals can build up a natural human resistance to killing.