THE NHS was not founded by accident — it was born out of the demands of working-class people who had suffered in the second world war and who made it clear to the ruling class that they were no longer prepared to put up with living in filth and dying from curable injury and disease. 

For the past 73 years the vast majority of people in this county have been able to rely on free NHS care and treatment when they have needed it. 

On the 73rd birthday of the NHS, it’s important to recognise that our human right to free healthcare is being rapidly eroded by this Tory government.

The gradual attrition of the NHS as we know it is accelerating at pace. This is affecting NHS staff and the public too. 

The signs that access to the NHS is becoming more restricted are all around us, from the difficulty in getting a GP appointment or walking into an A&E, right through to patients having to wait excessive and inhumane lengths of time to get treatment for mental or physical illness. 

It is not uncommon for patients to wait six months or even a year to access mental health treatment on the NHS or to have their operations cancelled two or even three times. 

The irony of this situation is that if conditions are left untreated they generally become worse, even chronic, and more expensive for the NHS to treat. 

The cuts, closures and repurposing of NHS services that went on behind closed doors during the pandemic has led to more than five million patients now waiting for treatment. 

The stories of unusual deaths of younger patients exposes the impact of the systemic crisis that has been deliberately created in the NHS by decades of cuts to services and staffing and the drain of experienced staff out of the NHS.

There is no NHS without its dedicated and highly skilled staff who always go over and above the call of duty to alleviate the distress and suffering of their patients. 

Prior to the pandemic we already had 100,000 vacancies in the NHS and this is because NHS wages, terms and conditions have been driven down over the last decade. 

The war-like working conditions created by the pandemic have led to experienced NHS staff suffering burnout at unprecedented levels. 

Many of these staff will leave the NHS in the coming period and what this means is that increasing numbers of very new, inexperienced NHS staff will be allocated tasks beyond their level of training and competence, a dangerous situation that could be life-threatening for patients. 

This is why the demand for a 15 per cent pay increase for NHS staff is so important because it means that we retain our skilled and experienced staff in the NHS which is vital for patient safety.

The NHS white paper is explicit in its intention to give the Secretary of State unbridled powers to deregulate the professions and already NHS trusts are advertising for non-nurses to go into nursing roles. 

This is dangerous because the nursing role requires three years’ training and many years of experience for nurses to deliver care that is competent and safe. 

Companies like Centene and others are now moving in and taking over GP practices and seats on commissioning bodies, which gives them unprecedented decision-making powers on how NHS budgets are allocated. 

NHS unions like GMB already know from experience of dealing with the private companies that the pay, terms and conditions of staff and most importantly the services provided to patients will not be a top priority simply because the emphasis will shift from ethical patient-based care to the protection and further accumulation of private profit. 

It is clear that the interests of NHS staff, patients and the public are aligned because we will all potentially suffer if we allow the continued dismantling of the NHS to go unchallenged. 

The integrated care systems are literally shrinking the provision of NHS services as they are moved, merged and cut out of existence, and staff working in existing services will find themselves moved and subjected to deskilling, downgrading, worse terms and conditions and redundancy. 

The defence of the NHS is one of the biggest emergencies facing the country and one that can unite absolutely everyone. 

This important work cannot just be left to health trade unions or individual NHS community campaigners. 

Big protests are planned for today, July 3, for the 73rd birthday of the NHS. 

We all know that celebrations, clapping and platitudes are not enough so we must unite around a common set of political demands which start with getting fully behind the call for a 15 per cent restorative pay rise for all NHS staff. 

There must be an end to service cuts and an end to privatisation because if this direction of travel is permitted to continue without a serious challenge none of us will be celebrating the 100th birthday of the NHS.

Helen O’Connor is Southern Region organiser for GMB. Find your nearest protest at keepournhspublic.com.