A baby, in Britain, in 2025, takes its stuttering final breaths. All deaths in infancy are harrowing. But the fact that this particular death might have been prevented – had neonatal care not depended so heavily on charity, had the NHS not failed to fund more than two-thirds of the healthcare babies need – is unforgivable.
Mercifully, the dystopian healthcare scenario I’ve just described does not exist in the UK today. Although paediatric care is undeniably overstretched, it is at least regarded as a core, bedrock NHS service.
