Mr. Prime Minister, We Understand It Is Difficult. But What Is Your Plan?

Running a national health system is difficult.

There is never as much money as people would like. Doctors and nurses are in short supply. The population is ageing. Demand is growing. Budgets are not unlimited.

We understand that.

Every government probably reaches moments when it must choose between a bad option and an even worse one.

But there is one thing that is difficult to understand.

If the health system needs more people, why are there also restrictions and bureaucratic barriers that make hiring them harder?

Mr. Prime Minister, we are not asking you for a miracle.

Really.

But we do expect the government to keep looking for a way out.

Maybe funding needs to change.

Maybe hiring rules need to change.

Maybe money needs to be distributed differently within the system.

Maybe management priorities need to change.

Maybe the answer is something else entirely.

But what is your plan?

What are you going to do so that a shortage of money does not become a shortage of healthcare?

So that doctors can spend their time treating patients rather than dealing with the consequences of understaffing?

So that nurses are not constantly expected to do the work of two people?

So that the person who needs care does not become the final link in a chain of budget savings?

We understand: this is difficult.

Of course it is.

But large problems are given to governments precisely because individual citizens cannot solve them on their own.

Who else are people supposed to rely on when changes of this scale are needed?

That is what you are there for.

Not to promise the impossible.

But to work harder, look for solutions, try, correct mistakes and try again until the system begins to work better.

So the question is very simple:

Mr. Prime Minister, what exactly are you going to do?

Observer