Who Cared: Conflicts of Interest

In the UK today we have a bankrupt health service, and a Treasury which is deeply into debt. At the end of WWII we were in exactly the same position, with a bankrupt health service and a Treasury which had run out of money.
The solution was a social revolution voted for by the public, and a Labour government with a massive parliamentary majority.
The government’s National Health Service Act took three years to formulate, but after only four years the public said, ‘thank you very much’, and decided to bring back the capitalist Tory Party, unaware that their action would mark the beginning of a progressive decline which has accelerated over the last decade.
So we are back to square one, but has anyone learned anything from the last 74 years of muddled thinking, and the endless opportunities for those of us who have profited from the misery of the sick?
This narrative is a rough historical account of what has happened, and makes special reference to how it affected the delivery of healthcare in NE Essex. This neck of the woods is probably typical of most of the rest of the UK and should not be interpreted in isolation.
The problem in front of us is how to get this sick establishment back on the road to recovery.
There will be no quick fix.
Pouring good money after bad is not the answer.
It will require people with real moral fibre to sort out this mess, but it is achievable.

However, before we go blundering forward, let’s first discover where we have come from.