We have not lived in fear of needing medical assistance – until now
The IndependentThe best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy It still doesn’t feel all that long ago that this country was stopped in its tracks by the horrific news reports from inside Covid-ravaged Italian hospitals. When I worked in New York in 2005, the University of Columbia – an Ivy League school that charges terrifying fees – had set up its own, in effect private ambulance service, so that college students wouldn’t have to dial 911 in an emergency and potentially spend the rest of their lives paying it off. People seem to know, at the moment, that the ambulance isn’t going to come, that you might be better off tending to your children’s illnesses via Dr Google or, if you’re lucky, knowledgeable friends. It shows, in split screen, two fictional British NHS hospitals, one imagines life outside the EU, the other inside.