Morning View: There is more success in the NHS than failure

The health service was often said to be in crisis prior to coronavirus arrived in 2020, and then was in crisis throughout the pandemic.

Lockdown has created its own raft of backlogs and problems. Meanwhile there are shortages in nursing and worsening disputes over pay and conditions.

Beyond the NHS, there are other crises – the whole world of care for the elderly being one. It is not a good state of affairs.

Bad mismanagement and political populism have played their part in the huge difficulties, as have medical successes – such as the fact that people are living longer and need more help. Amidst the gloom, it is easy to lose sight of those successes.

Health chiefs have said the NHS is on track to eliminate Hepatitis C in England by 2025 thanks to a pioneering drug deal and campaign to find people at risk.

The blood-borne virus, which affects 70,000 patients in the UK, involves the deadly combination of being symptomless and then cause liver disease because it goes untreated.

The number of people affected is small – at any one time around one person in one thousand.

But the strides in NHS care and disease management over the decades have involved multiple instances of progress in areas of health that might each only affect relatively small numbers of people, but which overall have a vast impact.

That overall impact leads to the aforementioned increases in longevity and people living far longer lives than they once did, often finding fulfilment far into their retirement years.

Things are often grim in the NHS but much more of the service is good than bad. The UK has the basis of great health care if politicians can persuade the public to accept a long-term and realistic approach to provision.