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Public need over greed: The outcry at new NHS privatisation plan
February 28, 2013
A quietly announced piece of legislation has attracted a storm of criticism from both Liberal Democrats and GPs (Doctors, General Practitioners), and garnered over 190,000 signatures in but a few days to stop it.
SI 257 is a new amendment to the controversial Health and Social Care Act passed early last year. Upon its implementation on April 1st, all National Health Service contracts in England will be opened up to “compulsory” competition, and making whatever a monitor regards as an “unnecessary” barrier to competition illegal.
Many fear that this new amendment will force privatisation on communities, despite reassurances from ministers that the final decision will lie in the hands of local people.
The latest in a long line
This is not the first time privatisation has been on the cards for the NHS. Prime Minister David Cameron argued in Prime Minister’s Question Time that current privatisation plans are merely a continuation of New Labour’s health reforms which included the introduction of Private Funding Initiatives, which resulted in the department debts of up to £150 million.
The Health and Social Care Act, passed in March 2012, allowed for 49 percent of contracts to be bid upon by private companies. The result was a wave of buy-ups of NHS services, with some 400 NHS contracts worth over a quarter of a billion pounds going to private providers.
However, the bill only passed through thanks to reassurances to the Liberal Democrats from the then Health Secretary Andrew Lansley that “there is absolutely nothing in the bill that promotes or permits the transfer of NHS activities to the private sector.” Services such as Manchester’s patient transport were up for grabs, though GPs and other frontline services were to remain in the public sphere.
Public backlash
Since the discovery of the amendment, GPs have begun campaigning for its repeal. Senior GP Dr. David Wrigley has urged clinicians and NHS staff to back his campaign to bring about a new parliamentary debate on the “forced privatization” of the NHS, citing the former Health Secretary’s promises to maintain local choice on whether to use competition.
GP action culminated in one retired doctor standing in the recent Eastleigh by election, as a candidate from the NHS Action party. The Liberal Democrats, the Conservative party’s coalition partner, have also been raising concerns over the bill, so much so that government sources have said that the current Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was prepared to review the regulations to satisfy the liberals amid fears of a fresh rebellion over health reforms.
There has also been a quick social media reaction despite the BBC’s near total silence on the issue, with one petition on the 38 Degrees protest website garnering over 190,000 signatures since the amendment went public.
How will this affect patients?
Luckily, the current reforms contain nothing about having to pay for services. Healthcare looks set to stay universal for all. The real issue in contention is how this will impact the quality of healthcare. The fear is that the introduction of a for-profit healthcare system will lead to a proliferation of the “penny pincher” attitude that the service has become notorious for. It even more so removes the objective of the service away from care and instead towards private profit.
There’s also the potential that it could lead to a full-scale market system and the end of the NHS. After deregulation of public transport during the 1980s, private bus companies initially provided free services, similar to private companies within the NHS today. However, eventually these services were dropped, just as public and free gas, electricity and railways eventually were.
There is also the issue of democracy and accountability. Such privatisation plans were not on the Conservative manifesto during the 2010 election, and even ran with the election tagline “We’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS”.
A recent YouGov poll found that 4 out of 5 voters across the political spectrum do not want any more markets in the NHS. These measures are not what the majority people voted for or want.
Also, when the HSCA was first passed its measures were far less extreme (as mentioned earlier), and passed under the assumption that it was to be the limit of privatisation. However, this new extension of the act will not and has not been debated in parliament, and only merited a passing mention in today’s Prime Minister’s Question Time.
- Christopher M.
(Source: thepeoplesrecord.com)
England, Wales teachers vote to strike for higher pay
September 8, 2012
Teachers in England and Wales have voted to go on strike over the “erosion” of their pay and working conditions, a teaching union has announced.
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) said its ballot of members had shown that 82.5% were in favour of walkouts, with a turnout of 27%.
Members also voted for industrial action short of strikes, with 91.6% in favour, the union said.
The result raises the threat of huge disruption to schools later this term.
The NUT, which has previously balloted members over changes to public sector pensions, has warned of joint strikes with the NASUWT teachers’ union.
The NASUWT, which already has a mandate to take industrial action over the same issues, welcomed the NUT’s “positive ballot”, saying the two unions would set out their next steps next week.
The NUT said both unions will be campaigning together to “ensure that the onslaught of attacks on the teaching profession stops”.
NUT general secretary Christine Blower said: “The NUT is left with no option but to take action to protect the well-being of our members and restore their rights to do their job thoroughly and properly.
“Teachers are being undermined by a Government whose almost daily criticisms and erosion of working conditions and pay, coming on top of previous attacks on pensions, are unacceptable.”
NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates added: “This result is the reflection of two years of sustained assault from the Government which has been deeply damaging to teacher morale, as well as to recruitment and retention.”
Some 228,831 NUT members in state schools, academies and sixth-form colleges in England and Wales were balloted in total.
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: “We are very disappointed that a small minority of NUT members has voted this way.
“Industrial action would disrupt pupils’ education, hugely inconvenience parents and will damage the profession’s reputation in the eyes of the public.
“Parents and members of the public will struggle to understand why the NUT chose to ballot their members now about pay and working conditions when decisions about future pay arrangements have yet to be made.”
The ballot result follows a warning by the leader of the UK’s biggest trade union of a fresh wave of co-ordinated strikes because of continuing anger over cuts to pay and pensions which were leading the country on a “path to poverty”.
Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, said there was a “real likelihood” of more industrial action before the end of the year, following last November’s huge walkout by public sector workers over the Government’s controversial pension reforms.
The annual TUC Congress is being held next week in Brighton, when activists are expected to press for industrial action.
From Chicago to England, teachers strike!
Premature austerity measures have cost Britain 16.5% in economic growth’ warns leading forecaster
August 04, 2012
George Osborne’s austerity measures may have cost Britain 16.5 per cent in GDP growth over a decade, a leading economic think-tank forecast today.
Had the Chancellor withheld from a deficit-reduction package of cuts and tax rises until 2014, he could have avoided this year’s double-dip recession and saved the equivalent of £239billion in 2010 prices, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research predicted.
The forecasts are likely to pile further pressure on the coalition government to change its austerity tactics, which detractors increasingly blame for the slump in the economy.
