Shirley Street Stall to save our NHS
2nd May 2011
Labour volunteers will be out in force in Shirley precinct on Monday 2nd May, calling on David Cameron to keep his promises to protect our NHS.
Local activist and NHS user Eileen Wharam said:
“A lot of us have worked in and used the NHS over the years- and we genuinely love it. We love the fact that whoever you are, the NHS is always there for you and won’t try and make a profit out of whatever problem you have. The idea of David Cameron wasting all this money on reorganising the NHS only to hand it over to private companies really makes me furious. That’s why we’re here today.”
Local MP Alan Whitehead said:
“There is real and widespread public concern about what these Tory health plans will mean for health services in Southampton. In addition to the staggering £3 billion up-front cost, they could also mean a mass private takeover of our health service, perhaps ending with people being denied life-saving care and treatment if it is deemed unprofitable.
“This is no way to treat our NHS. I encourage everyone across Southampton to sign our petition at www.frontlinenhs.co.uk and raise their voices to challenge these changes."
Shadow Health Secretary, John Healey added:
“There is confusion at the heart of Government. While they claim to be listening, the Tory-led Government is in fact still ploughing on with their NHS reorganisation."
“They need to understand that there is not simply concern with the pace of change; it is a question as to whether these are the right reforms at all. They should take this opportunity to listen properly to the concerns that have been voiced over the past nine months and respond with radical surgery to their reforms.”
More information
Labour’s petition calls on the government to:
- Protect frontline NHS services
- Stop precious NHS money being wasted on a big top-down reorganisation, which is putting the NHS at risk
- Provide the real increase he promised in NHS funding
The much talked about move to give GPs control of NHS budgets is the tip of the iceberg of the Tory NHS plans. The hidden bulk of the changes lie in opening up every part of the NHS completely to the private sector. Local hospitals will be destabilised as providers cherry-pick the most profitable patients by undercutting the NHS on price.
- The national Labour petition that has been launched can be found at: www.frontlinenhs.co.uk
David Cameron promised ”no more of those pointless re-organisations that aim for change but instead bring chaos”, and said that they reveal “an attitude to the NHS that sees it as just a massive bureaucratic machine to be taken apart and put back together again"
- That the Government amend the legislation to protect the NHS against the full force of UK and EU competition law.
- That the Government protects patients from the loss of guaranteed waiting times by re-instating the requirements that all NHS providers meet minimum waiting times guarantee, like 18 weeks.
- That the Government abandon the breaking up of commissioning into hundreds of small GP-consortia, risking the fragmentation of care, particularly specialist services like cancer care, and a loss of public accountability for how NHS money is spent by commissioners.
- That the Government amend the legislation to ensure that
commissioners make decisions about NHS resources in the interests of patients and prevent commissioners making private profits or commissioning services from themselves. And to safeguard commissioning as a transparent, open and public function, preventing conflicts of interest and involving patients’ representatives in decision-making bodies. - That the Government act to safeguard NHS services for NHS patients and prevent the full commercialisation of Foundation Trusts by retaining a performance regime for underperforming hospitals and capping private income to prevent cross-subsidy of fee-paying private patients.
Labour Leader Ed Miliband and John Healey are seeking the following reassurances and changes to be made to the Health and Social Care Bill:
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