As we are distracted by news of our Prime Minister Boris Johnson waffling on about Peppa Pig, the NHS in England is being dismantled. It is entirely possible that his behaviour is designed to distract from that fact. MPs today will vote for the third and final time on the Health and Care Bill before it heads to the Lords.
The Tory Government's health and care bill focuses on restructuring parts of the NHS in England to create a ‘truly integrated’ healthcare system that involves less central bureaucracy, but will see it being split into 42 parts, with private companies being able to sit on the board of each part and decide who gets funding. It will put profit at the centre of the NHS and is a threat to universal healthcare. It is bad for staff, it is bad for patients.
Successive
governments have been plotting to dismantle the National Health
Service for many years. The
Health and Social Care Act 2012 removed the obligation on the
Secretary of State for Health to provide us with healthcare, which
was central to the founding of the NHS in 1948, ‘free at the point
of delivery’. Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities
were swept away, to be replaced by Clinical Commissioning Groups,
partly run by general practitioners, but also a major point of access
for private service providers. In 2013, Public England, a new
executive agency of the Department of Health, was set up. All of
these measures paved the way for privatisation.
Over the decades, the NHS has been deliberately starved of funding, so
that when the Covid pandemic hit, it was ill prepared. Due to this and
government bungling, the UK had the highest death rate per capita in the
world. And instead of making the very most of the resources available,
the Government took advantage of the crisis to flout tendering laws and
award contracts to friends and family with no experience of sourcing PPE
and whose only interest was in maximizing profits. We have also seen in the pandemic how bringing in private firms has
wasted vast sums, and absolutely failed us as patients and as a
country,To
save money, there will be more down-skilling, such as nurses
replacing doctors, which has happened during the pandemic, causing
staff stress, lack of patient trust and greater risk of accidents.
Opponents of the bill are warning that it will pave the way for the
English NHS to be replaced by a profit-driven American-style system,
which would incentivise private health providers to cut and deny care to
increase profits. The
United States has one of the worst healthcare systems in the world
and the most expensive. Health insurance does not cover all
procedures, patients needing long-term and expensive treatments
are often refused them. If they can’t afford private treatment,
they are just left to suffer and decline.
The Johnson government’s Bill is also a Service Withdrawal Bill that will remove the statutory duty on the Health Secretary or on the new
NHS Boards to provide hospital care.Integrated
Care Boards will be able to award and extend contracts for
healthcare services, of unlimited value, without having to
advertise, including to private companies. This is what the
Department of Health has got away with during the pandemic, and
very lucrative it has been for friends and relatives of Government
ministers.
Short-term contracts to private providers will also damage established relationships between NHS staff and patients.
The Trade Union Unite has been one of the loudest and fiercest critics of the proposed bill, voicing concerns about its impact on services, accountability, funding, professional
standards, privatisation, safety, and terms and conditions.
Earlier this year Unite’s national officer for health, Jackie Williams said:“The Westminster government’s
new Health and Care Bill is a Trojan horse for more privatisation,
cronyism, austerity and a licence for politicians to run down and sell
off the NHS."
The British Medical Association has also come out in opposition, thinking the timing of the legislation is "particularly unwise. while we are still tackling Covd 19 and resulting backlog of care" and that " the Bill addresses none of the problems the NHS is currently facing"
The Health and Care Bill will put far
too much power in the hands of private companies, who will be allowed
to profit from people’s health, contrary to the principles of the NHS.
It really beggars belief that it has even gotten this far. Privatisation of the NHS should be a deep red line for every citizen, It should not have been up for debate in the first place. Reform, improve, invest, make it more efficient, yes but lets not go down the path of privatisation.
Until recently, the NHS was the envy of the world, the best value for
money. But cuts to services year on year and more and more privatisation ( even now you have to pay to have your ears syringed) has knocked it down
several places and will only get worse if this rotten disgusting Government under Boris Johnson gets it way and this Bill is passed. Sadly it might be too late, the Tory Government has already gone ahead and approved a plan to make the poorest people in the UK pay for the social care of the richest. If todays Bill is passed we face many bleak days ahead. Imagine if your sister, brother, dad, mum, auntie etc were MP;s and voted for it. Personally, I'd disown them. If you haven't already go to https://www.yournhsneedsyou.com/ and urge your MP to vote against it! It's rather urgent now.
