Boris Johnson may claim the NHS is not up for grabs in any US trade deal, but a former doctor fears the PM will not be able to stop himself flogging parts of our beloved institution to private firms.
Adam Kay warns that would lead to sky high post-Brexit treatment and prescription prices as it is thrown open to profit-hungry drugs companies and health insurance giants.
The junior medic turned comedian and best-selling author said: “The more we are told the NHS is not for sale, that the NHS won’t play any role in negotiations with the US, the more we know it will.
“We have seen Boris’ CV, the lies. Why do we expect him to be good to his word about anything? I just don’t believe the NHS won’t form part of a trade deal. It’s a multi, multi billion-pound industry.
“He’s not going to be able to resist putting it on the table.”
(Image: Tim Anderson)
In June, Donald Trump announced to the world the NHS would be “on the table” in any future negotiations with post-Brexit Britain, prompting swift denials from a flustered Johnson.
That could open the door for US pharmaceutical giants to charge the NHS exorbitant market prices for drugs.
Currently, they are kept at bay by checks and balances which ensure health service prices are a fraction of US market costs, and the British health service is free for all – unlike the American system.
This would, Adam predicts, slowly lead to it becoming, a model of the US health system where citizens pay high prices for health insurance, around £7,800 a head, compared to our approximate £2,500 through taxes.
Those who cannot afford that, could pay with their health, or even their lives.
The 39-year-old added: “America has a very different health care model to us, we should see it as a very scary ghost of Christmas future. People die in the US because they can’t afford drugs.
(Image: Tim Anderson)
“As soon as there is a two-tier system, people who have the least will suffer the most. Ultimately, if you restrict people’s access to healthcare it will cost lives.”
Mr Trump is also trying to scrap his predeccesor Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, brought in to help poor Americans.
In the run-up to the referendum Mr Johnson repeatedly claimed the NHS could get £350million a week more after Brexit .
Plastered across the Vote Leave bus, the figure was rejected by UK Statistics chair Sir David Norgrove.
He accused Mr Johnson of “misusing official statistics” as the net amount paid in 2016 was £156million.
Adam, who reluctantly quit his medical vocation, eroded by the stress of a stretched system, concedes the PM would label him a “gloomster” or “doomster” – the PM’s terms for Brexit naysayers.
But he has built a new career out of telling the truth about the worsening state of the NHS.
Adam comes from a medical family – his brother and sister also work in the NHS. Being a doctor was part of who he was.
But in 2010, aged 30, he found he just could not go on.
(Image: Tim Anderson)
He became overwhelmed by a stricken system placing unmanageable demands on him, and finally, a traumatic experience in the labour ward, and the scant support offered afterwards to help him deal with it, forced him to quit.
During a Caesarean section a patient with an undiagnosed placenta problem began to bleed heavily and Adam couldn’t save the baby.
Afterwards, he finally realised he no longer had sufficient “armour” to cope.
He later suffered flashbacks and night terrors until he began to share his stories, in the form of an Edinburgh stand-up show.
Adam’s searingly honest first book, This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, last year’s bestseller, pulled no punches – either about the humorous sex accidents of patients, or the traumatic experiences and overwork he faced.
And neither is he today. He reveals he has received countless emails from other junior doctors admitting they are similarly struggling.
One sent 18 months ago said it all.
Adam revealed: “It was from a junior doctor saying they were leaving to re-train… as a firefighter. We are now in a world where that feels like a relaxing alternative to life on the wards.”
Adam has now written a second book, ‘Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas, about his six festive periods spent in the NHS.
The system has only become more stretched since he left the service.
Adam revealed there are more than 100,000 vacancies,10,000 fewer junior doctors than we need, and more than 30,000 nurses.
But it’s no longer only cuts-driven overwork which is causing an “absolute crisis”.
The impending threat of a no-deal Brexit, and the use of the divisive language coming from Westminster, led by Mr Johnson himself, is driving EU and foreign national workers to quit the health service because they feel “unwelcome”.
Adam personally knows three returning to their native South American countries.
This is leaving gaping holes which only inflict more pressure on those left behind, and a skeletal system Adam fears may simply not be able to cope with a winter health crisis this year.
He said: “The NHS is on such a knife edge at the moment because the NHS is its staff, and it’s stretched thinner than its ever been. I don’t know how well it is equipped for a major winter crisis. Staff feel they are not wanted.
“Are you going to wait until an arbitrary date and then, ‘Oh, you’re out’? The atmosphere in the room changes.
“How can it not when you’re seeing those posters at the time of the referendum of queues of immigrants? And when a lot of the language has been extremely divisive?
“A lot of that language is from Boris, he’s rabble rousing. Us and them.”
The picture feels overwhelmingly bleak.
(Image: Getty Images)
But although Adam feels the latest fund increase awarded to the NHS –an extra £1.8billion and 20 hospitals across the country upgraded – is “not enough, and too late”, he is positive the damage isn’t irreversible just yet.
He said it needs a big “grown-up” and “cross- political” discussion, where politicians can make important decisions about funding without worrying for their jobs.
Although he publicly lambasted then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt for his handling of the junior doctors’ strike in 2016, a meeting with the current minister Matt Hancock in April fared better.
Adam suggested NHS staff needed more psychological support – one way to help retain numbers and arrest the deluge of people quitting like he did.
And he believes investment has been made into the Practitioner Health Programme for staff dealing with mental health issues.
It is a great step forward that he is proud of. Because ultimately, it’s the workforce of the NHS which makes it what it is.
Adam added: “The NHS isn’t buildings and bedpans and CT scanners. It’s 1.4million people.”
‘Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas published by Pan Macmillan is out now, £9.99.
