Rod Stewart visited his local NHS hospital in Harlow, Essex yesterday (February 24) and paid for a day’s worth of MRI scans to help reduce the waiting lists.
The artist said he wanted to prove that he wasn’t “all mouth and no trousers” amid his recent comments about the state of the NHS. He also said he wanted to pay for scans elsewhere in the UK.
According to the Princess Alexandra Hospital’s chief operating officer, Stephanie Lawton, Stewart’s donation cut their waiting list for MRI scans by 10 per cent. In total, 20 patients were able to receive their scans that day thanks to Stewart’s help.
Stewart called into a Sky News phone-in last month where he decried the state of the NHS, criticising the “ridiculous” waiting lists which are currently some of the longest on record. It was during this conversation that he pledged to pay for scans to help cut the waiting lists.
Stewart said he was inspired to make the gesture after getting a scan himself in a private clinic in Harley Street.
“I walked in and said, ‘I’m terribly sorry, I’m half an hour late.’ They said, ‘Don’t worry, there’s hardly anybody in here today,” he explained. “There were eight people with hardly anything to do. Then I thought this is a terrible injustice, so here we are.”
He continued: “If this is a big success, which I think it will be, I’d like to do it in Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, and just keep it going, and hope some other people follow me. Because I want to prove I’m not all mouth and trousers and that’s why I’m here to prove that I followed through with it, OK folks.”
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Stewart also commented on nurses’ pay amid recent strikes. “There must be enough money in the coffers to pay up for these nurses – only two years ago we were clapping and now … bless them, they work so hard, salt of the earth.” He previously said he was “on the side” of striking workers.
On the NHS, he said: “We’ve got to sort this out, really. We’re in dire straits. If I am going to get political, I think we should send the Ukrainians F-16s. It’s up to you, prime minister.”
Lawton added: “Rod’s a local resident, we’re his local hospital, we’re really delighted to be working with him and his team for the benefit of patients and doing everything we can to reduce the waiting lists.”
Stewart was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2019 but was clear now “simply because I caught it early,” stressing the importance of early diagnosis for successful treatment.
During the Sky News phone-in, he said that despite being a long-time Conservative voter, the current government “should stand down and give the Labour Party a go” in a bid to solve the crisis.
