Andrew Cooper - Speech to Save our NHS Rally - Huddersfield Royal Infirmary

I'm going to talk today about the key threats our NHS faces

Lack of funding threatens our NHS

Everybody loves the NHS and in the run up to Valentine’s Day we need to ask how deep is our love. Our love maybe great but spending in the UK on Health compared with other EU countries is shameful. We spend around 8.5% of our GDP on Healthcare compared with the EU average of 10.1% Countries that spend more than the UK on health include those you might expect Netherlands , Sweden, German, France, Belgium, Austria but then there’s Portugal, Italy, Spain and yes even Greece. Government needs to fundamentally change its priorities and put the health of the people at the top of the agenda.

Ongoing privatisation of NHS services threatens our NHS

The millions spent on administering and monitoring privatised NHS services is not only inefficient it is also immoral that public money is used to bolster the wealth of private companies and people like Richard Branson. Green MP Caroline Lucas has been a great champion of the NHS Reinstatement Bill which seeks to reset the NHS as a public service.

Brexit threatens our NHS

As skilled medical staff from the EU feel unwelcome and uncertain about the UK as a place to live and work we are and will continue to lose valuable staff who simply don’t want to come here anymore.

Every crisis the NHS has is a treat to its future

Every time we have a winter crisis in the NHS like the one we have just had what message does that send to young people who are looking for a direction in life and a career in the NHS perhaps. It says to them that they will be entering a work environment that is under resourced, undervalued, where they will work long hours in hospitals with not enough beds and a high demand for services. We need an NHS that is good for those who use it but also those who work in it.

I am disappointed the Conservatives aren’t here today and that the Kirklees Conservative Tory Leader Cllr Hall does not believe the NHS crisis is real. Unfortunately it is and successive Governments have got us to this place with the marketization of a service that should always have been a public one. He says he respects NHS staff and the work that they do.

Respect is demonstrated by the priority that is placed on healthcare by Government and it is clearly lacking here.

So let’s press the reset button on the NHS provide the funding that is needed, kick out the profiteering companies and match the pride we all feel for the NHS with the resources it needs and deserves.