NHS reforms: A retired nurse's view

Eileen Smith, 79, is a retired nurse and midwife who worked as a nurse and midwife for the NHS since its creation in 1948
Eileen Smith, retired nurse
Retired nurse Eileen Smith says: 'You really felt that wave of relief when the NHS was established.' PR

I've spent my working life in the health service. I was 17 when I joined the NHS. I joined the local hospital, which at the time was called Park Hospital [now Trafford Hospital]. When the NHS was established, everyone was very excited about it and we were all amazed at the job Aneurin Bevan had done, to make a plan for a comprehensive, universal health service for all.

It was an enormous task to bring the charitable and voluntary hospitals and workhouses together with the modern new hospitals to form a complete NHS.

While we were training we were asked if we would work in one of these workhouses to introduce some of the new ideas. People weren't being got up, they were left in bed and therefore they were deteriorating. I met a patient who was in a vegetative state just because she wasn't being given her treatment. This patient received her treatment and actually came to life while I was there.

We knew we had to get patients up. We established routines of getting them up, regular doctor visits, all the things we take for granted now in rehabilitation. That wouldn't have happened if there hadn't been an NHS.

When I was a little girl I used to suffer from earache. I remember my parents used to say, "Is it really bad?" because they knew they would have to pay. At the age of seven you begin to realise, so I said "no, it's not too bad," and actually I got a perforated eardrum. In those days people did suffer. There was very little preventative medicine.


In the early years people were still aware that the NHS was something new, to be appreciated. Whereas I think now people take it for granted and don't think it will ever go away – and I'm afraid that it is.

We noticed changes to the service taking place during Margaret Thatcher's era, when we had privatisation of domestic services. As a ward sister, as far as I was concerned, the person doing the cleaning was part of the team. Because of that she was loyal to the ward and the standard of cleaning was really high. When you bring in a private company you lose that loyalty because they don't just work on your ward. I believe the spread of MRSA occurred during that period.

As the reforms continue the NHS will be completely fragmented. It will no longer be an integrated and co-ordinated health service. As a ward sister I could speak to the district nurses and I could discuss various things that they might like to implement before sending patients home. I think that we'll lose that. The private hospitals want to give the attention to the patient while they're in hospital, then when they get home they're on their own. I don't see this improving continuity of care at all.

I think fragmentation's a very dangerous thing, as is the profit motive. Sadly, I think the people who are pushing it are people who've got investments in the private healthcare industry. Everything in the health service has a price now and it was only done in order to bring in privatisation.

This isn't to say the NHS is perfect. But we want a better service, not a privatised Americanised service. And that is the way we're heading. I believe the reforms are entirely ideological. I'm heartbroken when I think of the wonderful thing that we have – the precious thing that we have – something to make us proud in this country, that they're actually going to sell it for profit. It's corruption and greed, purely.

In America the health system is appalling for the general population. They've got pockets of excellence for people who can afford it, but in general their health is not as good as ours. It costs a lot more than our system.

I'd like to see a restoration of the Primary care trusts, but with more medical and nursing representatives on them. I'm sure that if we continued in that way we'd have the best health service in the world. When I first heard about Andrew Lansley's bill, when I trusted him not to do another reorganisation, I really couldn't sleep. We want a better health service, but it doesn't have to be privatised. Privatisation will reduce quality, I'm quite convinced of that.