A major reversal of an unpopular 2013 shake-up of the UK National Health Service carried out by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition is aimed to “cut bureaucracy” and bring management of the health service “back into democratic control”. Keir Starmer said “abolishing the biggest quango in the world” by getting rid of NHS England would free up cash for doctors, nurses and frontline services, and speed up improvements in the NHS. The merger is expected to take two years.
The NHS, 5 July 1948 12 am, has a caring Cancer Sun square a healing (though not always practical) Neptune in Libra. The Solar Eclipse this year will rattle up the Neptune which doesn’t sound overly dynamic but (being wildly optimistic) may waken up the helping/healing raison d’etre of the organization.
The NHS Mutable T Square onto a focal point Mars in hard-working Virgo will have a tendency to go off in several directions at once so finding focus and managing anxiety will always be a priority. That T square is being activated by the Solar Arc Sun square Solar Arc Neptune – since 2021 and on through a major jolt in 2026 and more into 2028. So very much a game-changing phase in the NHS’s destiny.
Whether so much Neptune will lead to a new vision being effected or a period of confusion isn’t clear.
Health Minister Wes Streeting, 21 January 1983, is certainly tough enough to push ahead with major changes with his dogged Saturn in Scorpio conjunct Pluto Sun square his Aquarius Sun and trine His Mars in Pisces which in turn is in a risk-taking and lucky square to Jupiter Uranus. He will be under maximum pressure in 2026 with tr Pluto square his Saturn and tr Uranus square his Mars.
His relationship chart with the NHS has a friendly undertone but is also extremely fluid and fast-changing.
The Starmer Government chart 5 July 2024, 12.19pm London does have Saturn in the 6th house of health trine a 10th house Cancer Sun so health was always going to be a key issue.
Throughout all of the charts there is a great deal of Neptune plus an excess of scattergun Mutable which does not necessarily suggest a straightforward road ahead. The NHS is an unwieldy beast, loaded with impossible expectations.
Today’s lunar eclipse falling at 23Vir58 – the same degree as the focal point NHS Mars.
GD – Seems very pertinent doesn’t it? I’m also intrigued by this month’s Solar Eclipse at 9 Aries. The NHS had last October’s intense Solar conjunct it’s idealistic Neptune. This government’s S Node and BML (very lunar themed?) is also 10 Libra, while the Streeting/NHS composite has Ceres and Mercury at 8 Aries. Mercury turns retrograde tomorrow at 9 Aries, Venus turned Rx earlier this month at 10 Aries.
Be interesting to see what emerges when tr Mars triggers both the Virgo Lunar and Aries Solar eclipses in July and August this summer. There’ll inevitably be various reviews of this government’s first year around that time too. Tr Neptune turns retrograde on 4th July at 2 Aries, on the Government chart’s descendant – pulling back into the 6th house of health and everyday affairs again? And maybe dissolving one or two alliances?
Amanda Williams at Optimesia has this to say about the NHS Chart which I thought caught the organisation well
“Mars is also square the conjunction of Mercury, Venus and Uranus in Gemini. And also pulls the Moon (the public) into that conjunction. I find this also fascinating. What we see, with Mars on the Descendant is saving lives, what we imagine, with Sun square Neptune, ( as well as Jupiter close to the MC) is a service devoted to sacrifice for others. The reality is lots of little people, often female (Venus), running around doing lots of busy little tasks both to care for people and in administration (Mercury). There is also all the supporting technology (Uranus) as well as the huge dependence on foreign labour. That’s the foundation of the activities which we tend to take for granted.”
Very interesting, thank you Marjorie. I hope this attempt to improve things helps, having seen for myself how much waste and confusion there can be within this venerable institution. The NHS is almost a religion nowadays.
I noticed some powerful fixed stars in the founding NHS chart – bright Sirius the Dog Star with the Sun, fiery Betelgeuse with the Gemini stellium. What seems particularly apt is Ras Alhague at 22 Sagittarius, aligned with Jupiter, itself part of the mutable t-square you describe. This is the alpha star of Ophiuchus, the healer who wrestles eternally with a celestial serpent.
Elsbeth Ebertin had this to say about Ras Alhague:
“It has a Saturn like character, and some of the undesirable Venus qualities are also present. Connected with these are Neptunian tendencies, making the native especially prone to infectious contamination caused by toxins. People thus influenced are easy going in the use of medical drugs, hallucinatory drugs…”
Some more Neptune to add to the mix. I agree some version of the French model may be the only way to make it workable in the future. Meanwhile, it is yet another post-war organisation being challenged to change.
I looked up the original reports showing the launch was in the morning at Davyhulme, Manchester. I estimated 9:30 am based on your comments. The venerable institution 12h holds the 3 best doctoresque planets Pluto-Vesta-Saturn. The nn is in the 9h, the orthodoxy, religion. This puts the Moon in opposition to Jupiter. I’d use the Gemini Moon to be the regular people, patients.
The aspects seem to indicate the Sagittarius Jupiter is behind some of the issues. In the balancing opposition, the aspects usually give more weight to Jupiter than the Moon. The doctoresque planets are trine Jupiter.
At some point the transit Aquarius Pluto is going into the 6h and I’d expect the nursing/worker class will show a big transformation.
It’s a good chart for a health service except the sn in Scorpio ruled by the Leo Pluto in 12h mixes debt and high spending. It is literally like their credit card is being paid by someone else. Very little spending discipline. I’ve known a lot of people born in 1948, the only one who didn’t have major financial issues was the Taurus Ascendant with a 5 planet stellium in the 2h.
It needs to go over to a continental (European) system part funded by private insurance and part state run – with those unable to pay fully supported by the state.
The australian model may well work here too as it would only require add-on private insurance for supplemental services (elective surgeries for example)
I can only comment from history. When the NHS was set up, Aneurin Bevan wanted a monolithic structure, which accorded with the thinking of the time whereas Herbert Morrison wanted a to adopt a decentralised structure which resembled the Municipalization movement of 19th century Britain espoused by Joseph Chamberlain . Mr Bevan won and the result is the mess we have today. In addition Mr Morrison had experience of running the health system in the old LCC in the 1930s
It has been said that the NHS is a health service with a country attached. It is the single largest employer in England with 1.5 million staff which is more than 3 times the number working for all other British government departments combined. These figures do not include GPs or Dentists who are accounted for separately. It is an organisation founded on the highest ideals but as anyone who has engaged with it will know it can be maddeningly opaque and confusing to deal with. This probably reflects the big influence of Neptune on its chart. As an institution it often seems more obsessed with itself and its organisational processes than with its patients ultimate welfare. It is to be hoped that the recent move of the NHS progressed Saturn into Virgo will improve its overall efficiency and aid its focus on the latter.
Jupiter was in Gemini transiting the NHS Gemini stellium in 2013 when NHS England was established. Perhaps it’s the dual nature of Gemini that now we see a reversal. Or a burst of optimism and new ideas.