Even the most sentimental champions of the NHS recognise its dark side. Given that demographic changes mean millions more elderly people will rely on its services (and space), the NHS can only do one thing: ration.
If rationing is acceptable, though, scapegoating is not. Too much evidence points to the elderly being the scapegoats in the battle to save the NHS. Elderly patients are being denied the best cancer care. The figures are alarming: lack of treatment is contributing to 14,000 deaths a year among the over-75s. Men and women are dying prematurely each year because their diseases are diagnosed later and less likely to be operated on.
Nurses in hospitals plead to being too busy to look after their charges decently, and so elderly patients frequently suffer dehydration, malnutrition and a lack of hygiene.
This treatment is cruel and unfair: age comes to us all, and is not the result of lifestyle choices. There are plenty of conditions, though, that are the direct result of bad habits, poor diet, and the wrong choices. These conditions range from obesity and diabetes to smoking-related diseases. If a 20+ stone, 30-something woman goes into hospital with a bad diabetic attack, does she deserve to be at the front of the queue or the back? She has chosen to stuff her face with Mars bars and Coke, and is now suffering the consequences of her choice. She cannot claim ignorance of the dangers of her diet: the Government has carpet-bombed us with health advice, from schools to GP practices. Everyone who can watch the telly, let alone read the magazines, knows that a high-fat diet will affect you well-being, make you look bad and feel worse.
Does the obese 30-something lay claim to NHS services and a hospital bed when this means thousands of others will have to do without?
The septuagenarian who develops breast cancer has done nothing wrong – except grow old. The NHS has to consider that there are deserving cases and undeserving ones. Age should not be a barrier to optimum care; but bad habits should be.