Heavenly hellebore...

Another gloriously sunny day, although a little cloud appeared this afternoon.  Apparently we're in for some much cooler and rainier weather over the next couple of weeks.  The garden could certainly do with it but it will be a shock after the last few weeks of decent days.  

Being able to sit in the garden has certainly helped ease the strain of lockdown.  Will be interesting to see how a change in the weather affects that.  I can see me still sitting out there but in a rain jacket and brolly :-))

And now for something completely different.  

I don't often rant (actually maybe I do but just don't realise! :-) but I have so much to thank the NHS for, and feel so strongly about the chronic underfunding of this amazing organisation over many years, that I have to get this off my chest.  Here goes...

Oh dear.  I wish I hadn’t started investigating where Captain Tom’s fundraised money is going (and should you decide you read further I’d like to make clear this rant is not a criticism of the amazing work the Charity in question does, it’s a rant about why it’s needed in the first place.)

It’s an organisation called NHS Charities Together (formerly The Association of NHS Charities) which is an umbrella organisation for 250 charities across the UK, whose focus is to help hospitals do more.  

Collectively these charities give £1 million pounds to the NHS every day to fund major capital projects, pioneering research, and medical equipment for hospitals.  

£457 million pounds was raised in the last year alone.

In the Covid 19 Q&A section of their website they are asked the question “are these charities just propping up the NHS?”  Their reply is...“No, but they do help the NHS do much more than they otherwise could....they help the health services provide treatments and services they would not otherwise be able to fund. “

Say what?  They fund major capital projects, pioneering research, and medical equipment for hospitals and help the health services provide treatments and services they would not otherwise be able to fund?  I'm sorry, but if that’s not propping up the NHS I don’t know what is!

I would like to make clear I am NOT having a go at this organisation and the charities involved.  I am absolutely sure the funds they raise are vital and do a huge amount of good and provide services that, as they say, would not be available otherwise, but regardless of what they say, their funds ARE propping up the NHS.  And surely the more they fundraise, the more the Government will shirk its responsibility, meaning more fundraising has to be done to plug the gap?  

I am having real difficulty with the current political and right wing media drive to have the UK public view the NHS as a charity.  It's not!  The NHS is a publicly funded service that has been chronically underfunded for years, and as the public funds decreased, charitable fundraising has increased till we are now paying for the service twice.  And here we are doing it again.  And will continue to do because we don't want to lose it!  And the Government knows this and takes complete advantage of that fact.

An honourable old man, almost 100 years old, read that again, almost 100 years old, who has already done more than his bit for Queen and country, is so shocked and upset by the dire straits the NHS finds itself in, gets up and walks around his garden 100 times to raise funds, and what does the government do?  It applauds his efforts.  Really?!!!  When what it should be doing is hanging its head in shame, apologising to Captain Tom, telling him to take the weight off his feet, and making things right...immediately!

And what do we the British public do?  We also applaud, and encourage him, and send money, and muster that Dunkirk spirit and smile and feel so proud because we're all in this together....when in actual fact we should be apoplectic at the fact this wonderful old man not only feels the need to do what he has done, but that the NHS actually needs him to do it!


My God, that alone should have woken us up as a Nation and made us rise up to demand the NHS gets the funds it needs to run properly, NOW!

Captain Tom truly deserves all the love, gratitude, praise and tributes he has received.  He is a remarkable man and a stellar human being.  

I just feel that his actions should have started a revolution, not an absolution.