Explainer: Does the public have the answers for the NHS?

A public consultation on NHS reform is yielding some interesting ideas….

The health secretary has launched the “biggest ever conversation about the future of the NHS” and invited the public to contribute to share their ideas for how to improve the health service. The responses are being published on the consultation’s website and it’s fair to say some of the proposals are more constructive than others.

One participant, for example, has demanded a “maximum BMI (body mass index) for nurses”, clarifying that “they should lead by example”. At the time of writing this post had received 63 ‘likes’.
Other suggestions include “do away with computers”, “only serve plant-based meals and “bin diversity and all its nonsense”. One contributor opined that the NHS should serve alcohol with meals and said that Weather Spoon [sic] should partner with hospitals to encourage patients to get better quicker. Another user has taken the opportunity to complain to the consultation about having “fish odour syndrome”, a hidden disability that causes the sufferer to smell of fish.  

If Wes Streeting was hoping for a demonstration of mass worship for  Britain’s ‘national religion’ he will be disappointed, as multiple respondents called for cuts to NHS spending on managers, DEI and free at the point of use care for foreigners.

One dedicated free-marketeer titled their contribution ‘privatise everything’ and continued “privatise everything I don’t want queues no waiting lists just make it private and allow the price mechanism to work for heavens sake [sic]”.

City AM wouldn’t go quite that far, but hopes that this valuable engagement exercise gives the government some food for thought.