This is a day for unity in our opposition to the creeping
privatisation of our NHS, but I will say this. It would have been more
difficult for the Coalition Govt to introduce these changes if a previous
government hadn’t opened the door to privatisation. By changing the NHS from a
services provider to a commissioner of services it gave a far greater role to
the private sector in the NHS. Hospital Trusts increasingly contracted out
services to the private sector. Public money supported the extortionately expensive
Private Finance Initiative used to build hospitals with no reasonable
alternative funding source provided by govt. Unfortunately there are many other
examples of the creeping privatisation of the NHS allowed under a previous
govt.
The Coalition’s view of the Health service is very narrow
and infact NHS to them stands for a Narrow Health Service. One where the Health
Service delivered by the public sector narrows and one where the private,
profiteering sector just keeps on growing.
The Green Party is 100% behind a publicly funded,
publicly managed and publicly delivered National Health Service focused on
prevention of illness, the promotion of good health and the treatment of those
in need whatever their income or background. Such a National Health Service is
the hallmark of a civilised society. One which invests taxation to the benefit
of the public not one which uses peoples taxes to pay the profits of
shareholders .
We know that when the private sector gets involved in the
delivery of public services that there will always be a tension between the
need to deliver good quality care and the need to provide a dividend to
shareholders. Something will have to give be that staff wages, specialist
equipment or even lifesaving drugs. Will we be faced with a situation where
increasingly the cost of delivering vital health services will be the deciding
factor to an even greater degree than it is at the moment.
We now need to broaden the Coalitions narrow vision of the
NHS to one which inspires and fits with the expectations and values of our
nation
The National Health Service is a whole and holistic
service not one where the public sector picks up only the parts which the
private sector finds too difficult, problematic or simply unprofitable
The National Health Service is a public service not one
for private profit
The only ‘shareholders’ who should benefit from the
National Health Service should be the public who fund it.
The initials ‘CCG’ should not stand for Clinical
Commissioning Groups. In the NHS ‘CCG’ should mean Citizens Care Guaranteed.
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