We are all to blame for the slow painful death of the NHS

Only the most gullible would believe that this winter's NHS calamity was unavoidable, that pestilences swept in from nowhere and brought millions down while the nation was fast asleep.

NHS England has put hospitals on 'black alert'. This means the cancellation of outpatient appointments, non-urgent surgery and treatments. The reasons given for the unprecedented measures: bad weather and more patients suffering from flu and breathing problems. It's winter. Did NHS chiefs not expect "bad weather"' and a spike in cold related illnesses?

Jeremy Hunt has apologised to patients but still says that he is more than satisfied with NHS management and delivery. Mrs May has just reassured us: "The NHS has been better prepared than ever this winter". This chaos serves them well. Read on.

According to a poll in The Independent newspaper last year, three out of four Britons believe the NHS is in a bad way. Exactly a year ago, the British Red Cross declared that overcrowding in A&E departments in UK hospitals was "a humanitarian crisis'" Things have only got worse. Ambulances can't cope with calls, staff are exhausted and demoralised.

To me it now seems like a cunning plan, not a cock up but a conspiracy. Several doctors share that view. A consultant who was treating me for chronic asthma said this: '"We were judged the least costly and best health service in the world by the American Commonwealth Fund. We can't keep that up as the pressures increase and this government sticks with its insane budgets. Did you know the rates for suicide for NHS doctors are far higher than average? I am quitting. In five years the NHS will be dead".

That's because the Tories are slowly starving the service. The £8 billion recently injected is pitifully inadequate. This party is ideologically opposed to any socialist model. The current cabinet is packed full of millionaires - Boris Johnson, Amber Rudd, Sajid Javid, Theresa May, Andrea Leadsom etc etc. In fact Jeremy Hunt became one of the richest of that team recently after making a huge profits on a business investment . How many of them use the local GP surgery or rush off to A&E departments and wait for hours with coughing, sniffling, crying, groaning men, women and children?

I am not scoring cheap points. If they have no intimate knowledge or experience of tax funded healthcare, ministers can never understand how the rest of us feel about our most precious national asset. More worryingly, they do not care to understand. As I said, this chaos helps those who want to "prove" to voters that the system has to become more "efficient" by bringing in private partners.

Last month, Richard Branson, the uber-capitalist won a billion pound NHS contract to provide some essential care. Others got great deals too. The renowned Professor Stephen Hawking warns there is a secretive mission to turn the NHS into a US style insurance system run by private companies. (The US, by the way, comes bottom of every international healthcare survey. ) In several cases already, privately run NHS services have been shown to be shambolic, dodgy and unreliable. The company Circle, for example, pulled out of its contract to run Hinchingbrooke hospital in Cambridgeshire after it failed an inspection by the Care Quality Commission. But the Tories are not for turning.

Users are also to blame for the state of the NHS. I wonder if those who voted for Brexit or who are ferociously anti-immigration, ever think about how many nurses and doctors would leave the UK? If they didn't they should do so now. Their choices have contributed to the current catastrophe. Government is too scared of this lot to come up with radical pro-immigrant policies to meet the desperate need for staff.

Secondly, we who can, should agree to pay higher taxes which should be earmarked for the NHS. For too long British people have wanted the lowest of taxes and the best public services. That is not sustainable.

Finally, to those spoilt citizens who feel they have a right to care but no responsibility to the system or workers, grow up. Drunks are the worst. Over the festive season millions of them turn up in hospitals without considering the needs of others. A little girl I knew died last year while waiting to be seen because a group of pissheads arrived together after a stag do. They should be made to pay for the time and attention they get. The nation cannot afford free treatment for those who abuse their own bodies and the NHS.

The government is an untrustworthy custodian of the universal healthcare system Step into the breach comrades, be bold, make the necessary sacrifices. Your country needs you.