US President Donald Trump was deeply criticised after publishing a tweet in which he said that the NHS is ‘going broke’ and ‘not working’.
It comes after thousands marched last Sunday in London to ‘save the NHS’, demanding for the NHS to be adequately funded.
US President Donald Trump was deeply criticised after publishing a tweet in which he said that the NHS is ‘going broke’ and ‘not working’.
It comes after thousands marched last Sunday in London to ‘save the NHS’, demanding for the NHS to be adequately funded.
Mr Trump, who published the tweet to criticise US Democrats’ campaign for a universal healthcare system in America, was lambasted by Prime Minister Theresa May and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Jeremy Hunt.
Responding to Mr Trump’s tweet, Mr Hunt wrote that he is ‘proud to be from the country that invented universal coverage’.
He wrote: ‘I may disagree with claims made on that march but not ONE of them wants to live in a system where 28 million people have no cover.’
Among the topics that were raised during the march, the Government was criticised for its decision to bring private investors in the NHS, such as Carillon and Virgin Care.
Also responding to Trump’s tweet, NHS England CEO Simon Stevens said: ‘People in this country don't want to ditch our NHS – they want to keep it and strengthen it.
‘Our invitation in the NHS, should the president be visiting later this year, would be to spend time with brilliant doctors, hospitals, technology experts, scientists … and go away understanding healthcare for everybody, delivered at half the cost of the US healthcare system, is something that people in this country are deeply and rightly committed to.’
Donald Trump sent his tweet after hearing UKIP Brexiteer Nigel Farage’s comments on the universal care debate during an interview with Fox News.
Mr Farage criticised the Government’s immigration policies blaming them for contributing to add extra pressures on the NHS.
He said: ‘The problem is we haven’t got enough hospitals, we haven’t got enough doctors, we haven’t got enough facilities. Another problem we’ve got is the National Health Service has become the International Health Service.
‘We’ve got a lot of people coming into Britain from all over the world so we do need absolutely fundamental reforms.’
Also Labour shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth, who spoke at the march, condemned the USA President’s comment.
He said on Twitter: ‘Labour will take no lessons from Donald Trump who wants to deny healthcare to millions in America with a system that checks your purse before it checks your pulse.’
