LONDON — Nathaniel Dye believes he probably won’t live to see the next British election. But the music teacher diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer is doing everything he can to make sure the Labor Party win this.
Dismayed by the delays in his diagnosis by the National Health Service, the 38-year-old says he feels let down by the Conservative-led government, which health policy experts say has not adequately funded the NHS. As a result, he played a central role in the launch of Labour’s election platform earlier this month, appearing on national television to urge voters to back the party.
“I have seen underfunding of the NHS and poor management of the NHS cause real problems in the way I have been treated,” he told The Associated Press. “And I guess I find it the most natural thing in the world to talk to people on a personal level and say, ‘What can we do to make things better?’”
Dye’s story illustrates voters’ frustration with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party, which opinion polls show is far behind in parliamentary elections scheduled for July 4.
After 14 years of Conservative-led government, voters blame the party for the litany of problems facing Britain, from sewage spills and unreliable train service to cost of living crisiscrime and the increase in immigrants illegally entering the country after crossing the English Channel in inflatable boats.
But no public service is as central to life in the UK as the NHS, and it is failing to deliver on its promise to provide free healthcare to all.
The NHS is creaking under the weight of an aging and growing population, years of funding constraints and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. That means people are waiting longer for everything from primary care appointments to elective surgery and cancer treatment. Around 52% of people were dissatisfied with the NHS last year, up 29 percentage points from 2020, according to the British Social Attitudes Survey, which has been conducted annually since 1983.
That’s good news for the Labor Party, according to Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.
“The conservatives have nothing to brag about,” he said. “People’s experience of the NHS is very, very negative at the moment. However, they retain a lot of faith in the NHS and want to elect a government they believe will rescue it.”
Founded by a Labor government in 1947 to fulfill the Conservatives’ wartime promise to build a fairer society for the men and women who fought to preserve democracy during the Second World War, the NHS has virtually untouchable status.
If you’re British, chances are you were born in an NHS hospital and received your childhood vaccinations from a doctor paid for by the NHS. If he suffers a heart attack, he calls NHS paramedics and they transport him to hospital in an NHS ambulance. If you are diagnosed with cancer or any other illness, you are likely to be treated by NHS specialists. And you will never receive a bill.
But because the NHS is such an important part of people’s daily lives, it is also the most obvious example of how the social contract in Britain is being eroded.
Since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, the UK budget has been hit by the global financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and inflation, all of which increased public spending, slowed economic growth and reduced income.
As a result, the health care budget has grown by an average of 2.8% annually over the past eight years, compared to 3.6% over the previous 50 years.
This has put pressure on the NHS at a time when demand for its services is increasing. On top of that, the NHS is still recovering from the pandemic, which forced many people to postpone treatment while doctors and hospitals focused on COVID-19.
In March, more than 7.54 million people in England were waiting for elective surgery, such as cataract removal or hip replacements, 65% more than before the pandemic.
But the problems go far beyond elective surgery.
Newspapers are filled with stories of people waiting weeks for appointments with their family doctors, children hospitalized for emergency tooth extractions because they couldn’t receive preventive dental care, and patients spending hours in the back of ambulances waiting for the emergency room. emergencies. backups to delete.
All of that translates to higher preventable mortality rates than in other major developed nations except the United States, driven by below-average survival rates for many types of cancer, heart attacks and strokes, according to The King’s Fund, a group of independent experts dedicated to improving healthcare.
Reversing those trends is the top priority for most voters, said Charlotte Wickens, the fund’s policy adviser.
“And it’s because everyone suffers from health problems and everyone needs NHS services,” he said. “Whoever forms the next government will have to do something to change the situation in which the health service finds itself.”
The Conservatives say many of the pressures on the NHS are beyond their control and have promised to build 50 diagnostic centers across the country and increase funding by more than inflation during each year of the next government. Labor plans to tackle the backlog by spending £1 billion ($1.27 billion) to fund 40,000 more operations, scans and appointments each week, while also pledging to train thousands of new GPs.
But fixing the NHS will take more than money.
It needs to rethink the way it delivers care, making better use of technology and focusing on keeping people healthy, rather than treating them once they become ill, according to The King’s Fund.
Without such changes, more people will have stories like Dye’s.
Dye, who used to run ultramarathons, first sought medical help after noticing he was getting slower and slower for no apparent reason.
After blood tests and a stool sample revealed she might have cancer, Dye experienced several delays before starting chemotherapy.
“Among all of that is the silent, uncomfortable truth that I waited over 100 days in total, from contact with the GP to chemotherapy… and the goal is 62,” she said. “And that wait may shorten my life.”
Tests this week found Dye had no tumors. But she considers it a temporary relief because there is a good chance her cancer will return. Doctors say that only about 10% of patients in this situation survive five years.
“I don’t know exactly what needs to happen for people to get better results, but I can certainly use my example to say that we really need to push to get it done as soon as possible,” he said.
Dye hopes to achieve this by telling his story with dark humor that softens the unpleasant details.
Before becoming a Labor Party campaigner, Dye focused on raising money for cancer charities, including running the London Marathon while wearing a colostomy bag and playing a green trombone. He accepted requests along the route.
His playlist included “Livin’ on a Prayer.”
Overtaking many healthy people who were not burdened by musical instruments, he completed the 26.2-mile course.
“You could say… there’s no point in me getting politically involved, I’m not going to see the result,” he said. “But I don’t care because I think it all comes down to hope.”
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
