Ethos of NHS is the value not the logo (From York Press)

Ethos of NHS is the value not the logo

11:29am Friday 24th August 2012 in Letters

DON’T things change! A few months ago, according to David Cameron, NHS outcomes were not good enough, management costs were too high, and the public wanted better.

They went on to trot out a load of old and manipulated statistics (lies, basically) stating that you are twice as likely to die in the UK as you are in the rest of Europe. But then something changed.

Suddenly we are to believe we have a world-class health service. The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games must have inspired the coalition, for now the NHS as a brand is not merely a national treasure but an international asset, and some of Britain’s hospitals will be encouraged to take the NHS brand overseas.

This is not an entirely new idea. Andy Burnham set up NHS Global in 2010. The coalition has pinched the idea and will apply it with attitude; the NHS will be little more than a brand, a franchise overseas and here in the UK.

No one can really believe there is no scope for improvement within the NHS, within any service, public or private. A degree of private sector involvement has probably been good, but it is a matter of degree. It is the ethos of the NHS that is so valued, not the NHS as a logo.

Chris Brace, Wheldrake, York.