In the run-up to Brexit, the current government plans for an NHS bill in the next Queen’s Speech to supposedly "rein in" privatisation are not to be trusted. Furthermore, with the threat of a US trade deal, the future of Britain's health service hangs in the balance.
How did we get here? This is the question I set out to answer in Under the Knife, a 90-minute documentary that paints a chilling picture of an NHS being systematically dismantled and undermined. The film traces the marketisation of the health service – which began under Margaret Thatcher and has continued for more than 30 years – and the advancing wave of neoliberal thought that led to the crippling Private Finance Initiatives and other forms of privatisation.
The NHS is celebrated by politicians when it suits them, but many speak with forked tongues. As Michael Portillo, the former Conservative MP, admitted to Andrew Neil in 2013, the Tories lied about their plans for NHS reform in the 2010 election because "they didn't believe they would win...if they told you what they were going to do because people are so wedded to the NHS. It's like a national religion." Boris Johnson's new proposals should be seen in the light of Sir John Major's words on him and Michael Gove in 2016: "The NHS is about as safe with them as a pet hamster is in the presence of a hungry python."
