My Medical Gateway Blog

Boris Johnson’s candid reflection in a recent Daily Mail column (27/7/25) on choosing private healthcare invites not outrage, but quiet disappointment. This is the same leader who, during the pandemic, asked the country to make extraordinary sacrifices in the name of a health service he framed as untouchable. Now, from a private hospital bed, he speaks of pragmatism and choice. The contradiction isn’t scandalous – it’s saddening. A moment that could have brought honesty and reform instead gave us slogans and silence.

There was something quietly revealing about Boris Johnson’s recent Daily Mail column. Writing from a private hospital bed after routine treatment for a kidney stone, he offered a candid admission: he had chosen private healthcare. It was, he said, a small personal decision – but one laden with political symbolism. For the first time in his life, he had broken what he called the “ultimate political taboo.”

And yet, reading his words, it’s hard not to feel a sense of regret – not that he went private, but that someone in his position, with his influence, has contributed so much to a national narrative that is no longer sustainable.

Because if Johnson’s latest column was full of reasonable arguments about the role of private healthcare in Britain’s future, it was also shadowed by the memory of a very different Boris Johnson – the one who sanctified the NHS during the pandemic, wrapping it in the language of national salvation and urging millions to sacrifice in its name.

From Applause to Escape

In 2020, Johnson’s government led the country through a national crisis unlike any in recent history. At the centre of it all was the NHS – not just as a healthcare provider, but as a kind of moral compass. “Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.” It became the mantra of lockdown Britain, more prayer than policy.

People accepted enormous disruption to their lives. Businesses closed, families were separated, and freedoms were curtailed – all with the shared understanding that the NHS had to be preserved at all costs.

But that appeal only worked because Johnson made the NHS sacred. He framed it as heroic, flawless, irreplaceable. Any criticism was seen as disloyalty. Any failure in the system was to be explained away, not examined.

In hindsight, that language feels tragic – not because the NHS doesn’t deserve admiration, but because it was placed beyond honest scrutiny at precisely the moment when reform and realism were most needed.

A System Straining, Not Sacred

The truth is that the NHS, for all its strengths, is not performing as it should. Since 2020, public spending on the service has increased by more than 17%, bringing the total budget to nearly £150 billion in England alone. Yet over that same period, productivity has declined by 11%. Waiting lists have surged past 7.6 million. Access to diagnostics, surgery and GP care remains fraught with delays and variability.

This is not due to stinginess or political sabotage. It’s a structural problem. The NHS is delivering less per pound spent, despite major investment. It is a system under strain not just from demand, but from design.

And so when Johnson now writes – persuasively, even thoughtfully – about the benefits of private healthcare, it is hard not to feel that something vital was lost along the way.

Not just consistency, but candour. Not just leadership, but truthfulness.

The Missed Opportunity

What makes Johnson’s position so frustrating is that he could have said all this much earlier – and made it land. He had the authority, the platform and the persuasive gifts to begin a national conversation about what the NHS can and cannot do. He could have helped Britain move beyond the binary of public-good, private-bad. He could have called for reform, innovation, and honest expectations.

Instead, he leaned into the myth. He built the NHS into a national totem, knowing full well its limitations. And now, out of office, comfortably on the other side of power, he tells us that private healthcare is a sensible option – and that we shouldn’t feel ashamed for using it.

He’s right, of course. We shouldn’t. But the real shame is that this more realistic Boris Johnson never showed up when it mattered most.

The Real Hypocrisy

The true hypocrisy isn’t that Johnson went private. It’s that he spent years telling the public they shouldn’t need to. That their sacrifices were not just medically necessary, but morally pure. That the NHS was not just a system to be supported, but a symbol to be revered.

Now, when asked why he stepped outside it, he downplays the difference. He insists the treatment would have been more or less the same. Perhaps that’s true. But for millions stuck on waiting lists, the choice he made is simply not an option. And they remember the slogans. They remember the applause. They remember being told this was a national effort – and they’re still waiting.

Looking Forward, Not Back

There’s a need for a more honest conversation about healthcare in Britain: one that recognises the NHS’s enduring value, but also its limitations. One that acknowledges the legitimate role of private care without shame. And one that respects the public enough to tell the truth, even when the truth is complicated.

Boris Johnson had a chance to lead that conversation. Instead, he gave us myths when we needed honesty. And now, he offers honesty, too late.