I’ve been a full-time GP for nearly 30 years, and during this time have seen many changes within the NHS – some good and some bad.
After much heart-searching, I decided that the only way I could make my opinion known was by standing for Parliament.
So now I’m an Independent candidate, fighting for the Parliamentary seat of Rochford and Southend East.
Before every election, we have this spectacle of politicians visiting hospitals, shaking hands with the staff and patients, and showing their undying love for the NHS.
But once elections are over, they won’t even remember which hospitals they visited.
The NHS is nothing but an inconvenience to the main political parties
The queues outside A&E departments get bigger every year, and we’re given the same excuses. The hospitals go on red alerts, as if acute emergencies will simply go away on hearing red alerts.
In the past few years, 15,000 hospital beds have disappeared – this is the equivalent to 30 district general hospitals closing down.
The elderly population has increased and need hospital care, but there aren’t enough hospital beds to care for them.
The main political parties have promised thousands of nurses and doctors, and billions of pounds. Where they’ll find all this is anybody’s guess.
Is the NHS up for sale? Parts of the NHS have already been sold by stealth.
The public and medical fraternity know nothing about this, or only find out by accident.
I have no experience of politics. I’m an Independent candidate so I don’t have to toe any party line – my only agenda is to save the NHS. If elected, I’ll forcefully remind the Government of all its pre-poll promises.
Dr Navin Kumar is a GP in Southend, Essex
