The interview with Andy Burnham on R4 this morning sent my blood pressure soaring. If his civil servants didn't want to publish disadvantageous reports because it would embarrass the government that is because that was the message coming down the line. AB didn't have to say it explicitly or give a specific direction. Civil servants knew how he would respond and acted accordingly.
I accept that no system will be perfect, but the NHS is rapidly becoming a place where it is the survival of the fittest. DD, aged 39, with a buoyant and cheerful personality, rushed to hospital with a severe but less common type of injury to her arm, which had staff of all grades clustering around her bed at ward round times to see and discuss its treatment, was well looked after in hospital and since. DF, aged 92, remarkably fit and still in possession of all his facilities, again a pleasant and co-operative person, got excellent care when finally struck down by heart and infection problems. But an elderly aunt with dementia who had had a stroke and another elderly relation suffering self neglect as a result of a severe depression were treated appallingly. Neither was violent or difficult but they did not interact with staff in a helpful way and had no conversation.
Most elderly people, like those under retirement age now, pay massively into the health service during their working years through National Insurance payments and general taxation but, generally, used it very little. Now when they look to receive the benefit of their many years investment in the NHS they get treated as if they were freeloaders and leaches on the body politic.