Rod Stewart is putting his money where his mouth is to help people in the U.K. obtain necessary health services.
According to The Guardian, Stewart phoned Sky News yesterday (January 26) during a call-in segment on the program Your Say. The segment touched on the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) having massive waiting lists for patients waiting for various hospital treatment scans.
Stewart talked about how he was able to go to a private healthcare facility to obtain a scan, and the facility was “empty.” He expressed frustration with the U.K.’s Conservative Party (aka: Tories) in their running of the NHS.
“I personally have been a Tory for a long time but I think this government should stand out now and give the Labour party a go at it, because this is heartbreaking for the nurses,” said Stewart. “It really is heartbreaking. In all my years of living in this country, I’ve never seen it so bad and anything I could do to help. Poor nurses, I’m on your side. This is a bad time for us in Great Britain, it really is. Change the bloody government … It’s just terribly sad. I’m so proud to be British and I can’t stand it being this way.”
Sir Rod added, “I would like to pay for 10 or 20 scans, or however much it takes. I don’t know how we’re (going to) work this out and, hopefully, some other people will follow, because it seems ridiculous that this particular scanning clinic [I went to] was empty.”
He continued, “There are people dying because they cannot get scans. I don’t need the publicity. I just want to do some good things and this, I think, it’s a good thing, because if other people follow me, I’d love it.”