Speaking to constituents in South Dorset, it is clear that many are increasingly concerned about privatisation in the NHS. Voters who object to the introduction of the market to our health service will be interested to read I am supporting the NHS Reinstatement Bill 2015 Campaign. I urge everyone to visit their website.
NHS Reinstatement Bill is a non – party campaign, launched with the aim of committing new MPs to support a bill to reverse the privatisation that has occurred in the NHS and to stop any more: to reinstate the NHS as a publicly funded, publicly delivered service without a profit motive.
We know how strong local opposition was to the plans to privatise the pathology lab in Dorchester but another worrying development in Dorset is on the cards.
At the moment the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group is run by local GPs. The Dorset CCG holds the budget, decides which health services are needed and selects and pays organisations to provide them. This complex job makes huge demands on these GPs. For this reason, the CCG are making arrangements to contract this work out to Mckinsey & Co., a giant American healthcare provider. Once they have the contract, Mckinsey’s will, no doubt, award the contracts for our care to their private, profit driven, clients.
Recent developments at the Hinchingbrooke Hospital highlight the folly of privatisation in the NHS. In 2009 the last Labour Government , under the then Health Secretary Andy Burnham, started to create the first fully privately- run NHS hospital. The job was completed by this Government, awarding the contract to the Circle Partnership. This year Circle walked away from the contract because it was not profitable, leaving patients and staff worrying about the future of their local hospital.
The Green Party is the only national party that is totally defending the NHS as a publicly owned and publicly delivered service. An earlier blog on this site explains how we would fund this precious social asset. The other parties have all been culpable in the privatisation we now see. UKIP speaks openly now about a system funded by insurance. If the conservatives win the NHS share of GDP is set to fall from 8 to 6% over next 5 years which will cause closures and downgrading of Hospitals.
And yet the American based Commonwealth Fund described the NHS as the most efficient in the world. Promoting the running of the NHS by profiteers is unpopular, unworkable and unnecessary. By collecting all taxes due, introducing a fairer tax regime and supporting the development of community health centres, the NHS can be saved. The Green Party is the ideological inheritor of Bevan’s NHS.
To support the NHS Rinstatement Bill 2015 go to www.nhsbill2015.org
Jane Burnett
