A row has erupted after the NHS started to remove “inappropriate” suggestions on its consultation page.
Yesterday, NHS Change went live as part of Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s “10 Year Health Plan for England”, which called on the public and staff members to offer feedback on the health service.
Billed as the Department of Health and Social Care “the biggest national conversation about the future of the NHS since its birth”, feedback to “fix the NHS” can be submitted until the end of the year.
Since its launch, the page has been inundated with suggestions, some serious, some less so.
Free speech row erupts as NHS consultation page deletes suggestions that go too far
PA
One recommendation titled “Mandatory Euthanasia to fill up hospital beds” suggested that overweight and obese people who could be given Ozempic to help them lose weight and back in the workforce, should instead end their lives to free up space in the wards.
Meanwhile, another post suggested that the health service should “privatise everything” and place payment points at “every stage of treatment at every door in every building”.
A third suggested there be a maximum BMI for nurses, whilst contrastingly installing beer taps in hospitals was another.
Some of the controversial posts have since been deleted, with the health department telling the BBC that they were reviewing material that was “clearly inappropriate or irrelevant”.
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Yesterday, NHS Change went live
PA
However, the removal of the posts caused a ruckus online, with some critiquing the NHS for hindering free speech.
One said: “The NHS has finally begun deleting some consultation responses from its website despite widespread public support.
“Classic Labour censorship. What happened to free speech?”
One user online slammed the consultation for limiting responses. They said: “The NHS said that ‘we want to hear your thoughts’, before later deciding ‘we don’t like your thoughts’.”
Another said: “Deleting dissenting voices and calling it ‘consultation’? Sounds like Labour’s spin machine is in overdrive. Orwell warned us about this slippery slope. Free speech isn’t free under Granny Harmer’s watch.”
A third said: “Guess the NHS just don’t do satire!”
Wes Streeting launched a consultation for feedback on the health service as part of his ’10 Year Health Plan for England’
PA
However, others were in favour of the erasure of the posts. “If I was running the consultation I’d delete this idiocy too,” one said.
Other individuals backed the removal, citing the offensive content in some of the recommendations. One user said “some of them were very, very racist”, whilst another said: “So you support euthanasia of fat people, do you? Gross.”
Streeting laughed off some of the more light-hearted irrelevant suggestions, posting online that a suggestion about installing a Wetherspoons pub in every hospital has “sadly been vetoed by the chancellor”.
The health department has not confirmed which posts it is removing, but a spokesman said the moderation team is removing “clearly inappropriate or irrelevant” content.
Announcing the public consultation, Streeting said: “Today the NHS is going through the worst crisis in its history.
“But, while the NHS is broken, it’s not beaten. Together, we can fix it.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer added: “This is a portal where you can feed in your ideas, but there is, I think, going to be, a sort of discussion, chat element to it as well, where people can look at other ideas.”