British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday admitted he had taken the help of private healthcare services in the past. ANI
London: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday admitted he had taken the help of private healthcare services in the past, breaking weeks of silence over whether he had any experience of Britain’s state-run National Health Service (NHS) which is going through severe crisis.
With the ongoing agitation across the United Kingdom which has seen thousands of nurses and ambulance workers on strike over pay, Sunak has been repeatedly asked by the media and opposition lawmakers over whether he uses the NHS or gets private medical treatment which offers quicker service.
The British prime minister has till date dodged the questions and avoided conversation on the issue.
A few critics have argued that Sunak, who happens to be one of the wealthiest politicians in British history, is out of touch with those workers demanding higher wages to keep up with inflation and have doubted whether he could appreciate the strains the National Health Service is facing if he and his family did not use the service.
“I am registered with an NHS GP (general practitioner), I have used independent healthcare in the past,” he told parliament during the weekly session of prime minister’s questions.
“I’m proud to come from an NHS family and that is why I am passionately committed to protecting it with more funding, more doctors and nurses and a clear plan to cut the waiting lists,” he said.
The worst wave of strikes to grip Britain in decades could continue deep into 2023 with neither side willing to back down, a union leader said on Thursday. The enormity of the agitation also underscores the scale of the challenge that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces.
A day after the British PM pledged to tackle the country’s problems, rail workers again took to picket lines as part of a week-long strike that has paralysed the rail network, while daily reports elaborate on the mounting pressure on hospitals, where patients routinely wait for hours and ambulances queue in car parks.
The ongoing agitation is the worst bout of worker unrest since Margaret Thatcher was in power in the 1980s, combined with the return of double-digit inflation, and it has produced a sense of malaise in Britain, where living standards are falling at their sharpest rate since records began in the 1950s.
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