LOUISE RAW talks to Sabby Dhalu, Kevin Courtney and Steve Wright about why we should all join next weekend’s march against the far right in London
TODAY is the National Health Service’s 75th birthday. It remains a precious lifeline for the population as a whole, largely thanks to the increasingly valiant efforts of its 1.3 million staff, who have defied the odds to keep services going despite government policies.
But a record 7.4m on the waiting list and thousands of emergency patients left waiting hours on trolleys for lack of hospital beds are stark reminders of how far its performance has fallen.
When David Cameron’s Tory-led coalition took office in 2010 the NHS was reaching a peak of performance, with record low waiting times for elective and emergency care, and record high levels of performance and public satisfaction. These are now a distant memory.
We need a massive change in direction to renew a crumbling health service — that’s why Plaid Cymru has an ambitious plan to recentre primary care by recruiting 500 additional GPs and opening six new elective care hubs across Wales, writes MABON AP GWYNFOR
Government urged ‘to tackle the root causes’ of the NHS crisis and improve ‘social care services’
When privatisation is already so deeply embedded in the NHS, we can’t just blindly argue for ‘more funding’ to solve its problems, explain ESTHER GILES, NICO CSERGO, BRIAN GIBBONS and RATHI GUHADASAN



