Image: Theresa May, NHS boss Simon Stevens and new Health Secretary Matt Hancock vist a health centre in North London in November 2018. Credit: PA Images/Andrew Matthews.
Since the first edition of How to Dismantle the NHS in 10 Easy Steps, we’ve had the junior doctors' strike, the Conservative victory in the 2015 general election, the Corbyn phenomenon, the unexpected Brexit vote and the arguably even more unexpected loss of the Conservative majority in 2017.
In the months that followed the publication of my book in 2015, I found myself embarking on a journey that I had scarcely even contemplated when I set out to write it. Only weeks after publication, I was given a life-threatening diagnosis at the age of 34 and underwent several months of intensive treatment. Fortunately I went on to make a good recovery, all thanks to the NHS. From fighting to save the NHS, the NHS saved my life. One dreads to think of the financial costs of such treatment in a private insurance system. A 2009 Harvard University study found that the majority of personal bankruptcies in the US - over a whopping 60% - were due to healthcare costs.
