Veteran filmmaker John Pilger takes us through a history of threats to Britain's National Health Service, from its 1948 founding by Labour through a privatising push by Margaret Thatcher's bureaucrats, to challenges by new Conservatives. The film clearly lays out the scale and method of the market’s encroachment on the NHS. It’s increasingly difficult to trust politicians on the subject, both in government and opposition, but refreshingly, Pilger gives a platform to independent academics, researchers and medical practitioners who are able to cut through the noise and share their expert observations. The result is a damning report of decline and, as Pilger takes us back through the NHS’ history, one that began with Margaret Thatcher’s 

government and has since been compounded by the Blair government and David Cameron’s coalition. 

But is privatisation such a bad idea? The short answer is yes… From the shocking story of Trevor Moncrieff, the 66 year-old who died after a private ambulance service responded to his heart-attack call with a faulty second-hand defibrillator and fatally drove him to the wrong 

hospital, to the experimental privatisation of Hinchingbrooke Hospital in 2012 which resulted in the establishment’s worst ever quality assessment and was returned to the NHS just three years later.  

“This is a powerful and relevant investigation into national love for the NHS and the desire to see it continue to thrive, instead of diminish. John Pilger has yet again 

mastered film-making in forcing his audiences to be part of a necessary conversation and not shy away from reality.” ★★★★★ - Amber Jackson, UK Film Review

LIVING ROOM Q&As: THE DIRTY WAR ON THE NHS Panel Dicussion with Allyson Pollock and John Lister: https://youtu.be/y4tTc82KgRI