A pre-election video made by the two major NHS campaigning organisations has gone viral, just days after it was released on social media.
The video by Keep Our NHS Public and Health Campaigns Together features front-line staff debunking statements made by the Conservative party recently regarding its commitment to the NHS.
In its pre-election statement, the Conservatives purported to be “the party of the NHS”, and committed to an NHS investment of £33.9 billion as well as upgrading 20 hospitals and building 40 new ones.
However, in the video ‘So you’re thinking of voting Conservative?’, doctors and other front-line staff accuse the party of making misleading statements. The video points out that since 2010, the NHS has lost 15,000 hospital beds, equivalent to the capacity of around “30 district hospitals”.
The working health professionals featured in the video highlight that number of people waiting on trolleys has skyrocketed, from 6,000 in September 2010 to 65,000 in 2019. The campaigners say there have been 120,000 avoidable deaths under the Conservatives austerity measures.
“If you’re thinking of voting Conservative, please think again,” the video says. “If you care about the NHS, please don’t vote Conservative.”
The organisations say the video has had over a million views across Facebook and Twitter.
Dr Tony O’Sullivan, retired consultant Paediatrician and Co-Chair of Keep Our NHS Public says: “We are proud to have produced this video with amazing testimony from NHS nurses, doctors and therapists. Their honest, fact-checked statements challenge some of the more outrageous claims made by Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock and Conservative HQ. Dominic Cummings was closer to the truth when he said that Conservative MPs ‘don’t care about the NHS’ and ‘largely do not care about these poorer people’. This election will be absolutely critical for the future of the NHS, and hearing the facts first-hand from those that work in it sends a message that cannot be ignored.”
