So after the Brexit vote, what next?

Whatever you make of the Brexit vote, the ensuing chaos must be laid firmly at the door of the Conservative Party which forced the idea of the referendum, organised it (if that's the right word), failed to be honest about the issues (on either side), alienated the public and failed also to plan for an unexpected result.

The EU Leave campaign made a deliberate point of promising extra money for the NHS. The extent of the pledge was quickly revealed to be a lie and, indeed, post referendum, has already been retreated from by the likes of Nigel Farage. Nevertheless comments from the public both before and after referendum day suggested that it stuck in the memory and influenced people’s votes.

Whatever happens to the UK’s relationship with the EU after the vote in favour of Leave, the current government's austerity programme has placed the NHS in dire trouble and it is now issuing new threats to public spending. Goerge Osborne warned that even his so-called protection for the NHS budget was unlikely to be guaranteed. Starved of resources, haemorrhaging clinical staff, and facing continually rising expectations, the NHS faces new threats of further cuts because of growing economic weakness, rising inflation as a result of currency fluctuation and the likely diminution of the 52000 EU immigrant staff who help to keep services meeting patient need. As budgets get tighter national and local NHS leaders are being forced into ever more contortions to keep the service going - the latest being so-called Sustainability and Transformation Plans, in our case covering the whole of South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw. In many parts of the country these plans introduce cuts and closures and are already subject to challenge.

In the General Election our area voted overwhelmingly for pro-NHS candidates but in the referendum it voted narrowly for Leave. Few in Sheffield want to see the NHS collapse so we have a collective responsibility to ensure that what we value about our system lives on. We, the public, NHS patients and NHS staff, whether we are Remainers or Brexiters, need to care for the NHS both in the demands we must make of decision makers in all parts of the political spectrum and in the way in which we use it. Otherwise. before very long, we will find ourselves faced with an increasing spread of charges and the collapse of many parts of the system into private hands with no sense of responsibility to society at large. We've already seen the mess which has been left in places like Nottingham, Cambridgeshire and Cornwall when that happens. Sheffield Save Our NHS will be continuing to campaign both locally and in partnership with others in Yorkshire and the rest of the country to keep the NHS as a public provider of quality universal health care.

Come to our meeting on 4th July at the United Reform Church (6.30 for 7pm) to celebrate the 68th anniversary of the NHS, to hear about developments across Yorkshire, and to plan how best to campaign for the NHS in the future.