Policing & NHS suffer the same problems; everything is dealt with retrospectively & after the fact

With public health being such a low priority, so much poor housing, high levels of poverty, poor diets etc. the have not’s are too often getting ill or becoming unhealthy when they should not need to be. In turn this creates problems for the NHS in terms of costs and capacity.

Yes, of course an aging population is also a big issue for the NHS, but that’s been predicted for many, many years yet not properly prepared for by government.

And yes, I’m sure the NHS will have management issues leading to poor, slow and wrong decision making. But again this is not a new issue and governments of all colours, despite much hand-wringing and many reorganisations, has failed to sort it out. What’s the betting yet another NHS reorganisation is on some political cards in this an election year.

Instead of pushing hard for healthier lifestyles, healthier eating, secure and well maintained social housing (and enough of it), exercise, more cycling and walking and less use of vehicles our society and government seems to have settled for not seriously addressing such matters so leaving the NHS to pick up the consequential poor health and too much pressure due to unavoidable illness.

Then look at policing. It is now all but dealt with as a retrospectively by tackling the end result of crime rather than seriously bearing down on anti-social behaviour and wider criminal activity. Burglaries seem now to be an issue between householders and insurance companies with the police taking little if any interest, likewise, vehicle crime.

Community/Neighbourhood policing has been so hollowed out for it to be something in name only. This leads to few coppers knowing communities really well, intelligence not being picked up, anti-social behaviour/ lower levels of crime just everyday occurrences that are rarely identified never mind dealt with. Indeed, how much is not reported because folks know it won’t be addressed?

So the police end up dealing with matters that have developed because at community level there’s no intervention except when things get seriously out of hand. In turn this means those inclined to get involved in unacceptable activities realise that it’s unlikely they’ll run into any police enforcement.

Of course, the lack of enforcement is the big reason why our roads are at Wacky Races levels of danger. Why not drive mad when everyone else seems to be doing because there’s no enforcement. And even if drivers are ‘unfortunate’ enough to get caught by a mobile police speed trap, that’s just unlucky, take the hit and go back to what you were doing before ‘the police victimised a poor unfortunate motorist when they should be catching criminals’.

Austerity (a hobbyhorse of mine) is of course a big underlying issue for the NHS and Policing but our political classes are not really keen to do much about it. Yes, they’ll finger point at each other and engage in political mudslinging but will they actually do anything?

So the NHS has to deal with ill health caused by preventable issues that governments don’t wish to address and pro-active policing (except for organised crime and terrorism) is a thing of the past leaving our coppers to chase criminals after the fact; that’s when they’re chased at all, of course. 

It’s as though we don’t know how to run a healthy and law abiding society, yet of course we do but we keep electing politicians who don’t give a damn about decent public services.