Bitter pills

NEARLY everyone born in England after 1948 was delivered into the care of the National Health Service, and most retain an almost filial loyalty to the organisation. The taxpayer-funded service, which provides health care free at the point of use, is so precious in the public imagination that politicians are less likely to talk of improving the NHS than “protecting” it.Yet this national treasure is looking frail (see ). Nine out of ten of the local trusts which run hospitals are spending beyond their budgets; overall the service faces a funding gap of £20 billion ($27 billion) by the end of the decade. Doctors have gone on strike over a new, less generous contract that the government is imposing on them. And everywhere hospitals are struggling to make ends meet. In recent weeks one trust has abruptly shut an emergency department to children because it was found to be unsafe; another said it was considering delaying all surgery on obese patients.