Working on the report for the Lewisham Hospital Commission of Inquiry, I glance up and see the Guardian headline ‘NHS staff face jail for neglect.’  OK, we do not want neglect in our hospitals, we want the best care there can be.  But there are already sanctions if people commit acts which end in injury or death for people. What we need is more nurses, better training for nurses and doctors, more money to be spent on the front-line.  We don’t want to criminalise our doctors and nurses.  We love them.

And this, for the government, is a problem.

People love the NHS, they are proud of the NHS.  They rely on it and it serves us all well.

So what is going on here?  My view is that this is all part of the attempted destruction of the NHS.  The government wants us to start worrying about neglect, lack of care, low standards.  By revealing all these ‘failings’ they hope we will start to lose faith in the NHS.  They want us to worry about the NHS, to lose our sense of security about it. They do not want us to turn to the NHS.  They want us to use private health care.

But why?  Why do they want us to do that?  Why would they want us to turn away from our beloved NHS?   Who has an interest in the success of private health care?  Is it those who have shares in private health initiatives?  Where do we find those people?  Can we find them in seats of government?   Where are the figures about failures, disasters, neglect in the private sector?

If I were a person who wore badges – and I am someone who rarely wears a brooch – I would wear a badge that said ‘I heart the NHS’.  For now I shall get back to the report of the Lewisham Hospital’s Commission of Inquiry.  It will be launched on 27 November 2013 in the House of Lords.