The NHS is 70 years old, worn out and in need of treatment - what are you prepared to do to help it?

May 11, 2018, 08:42 AM

This morning we are asking you the public a very big question - what are you personally prepared to do to make a better health service? Are you willing to pay more and are you prepared to make big changes to your way of life, accept responsibility for looking after your own health? The NHS is 70 years old this year - by all accounts it is often creaking at the seams - not a week seems to go by without another crisis and the costs are forever rising. For example, the NHS here eats up about half the Stormont budget, if that increases it has to come from somewhere else. Do we want that to come from education, infrastructure, or any other department with all the negative impact that would have in those areas or are we, everyone of us, prepared to pay more to make the NHS fit - not just for now but for the future? Or could we, by changing how we live, save the NHS a fortune? Joining Vinny in the studio this morning is former Health and Social Care Board boss John Compton, Professor Deirdre Heenan from Ulster University's Health & Wellbeing Research Centre and on the line lecturer in Social Policy Goretti Horgan.