Statement from co-leader, Dr Clive Peedell: The current crisis in A&E and how the government’s NHS ‘disorganisation’ is diverting money away from emergency services:
“The A&E crisis is a clear example of what happens when the Tories are left in charge of the NHS: funding cuts, hospital closures and bed closures, an expensive redisorganisation of the NHS taking the focus away from care, a fragmented and privatised NHS 111 service using cheaper and less experienced staff, too much pressure on GPs, and no solution to the social care crisis.
Worse still, the Government wants to reduce hospital services further and transfer them to the community, but it has not put the funding and infrastructure in place.
The NHA party would stop the NHS funding cuts and divert money wasted on the privatisation and marketisation of our healthcare system into direct patient care by investing in NHS emergency services and improving General Practice with more GPs and community nurses.”
Statement from Dr Clive Peedell: Queen’s Speech announcement on limiting migrants’ access to NHS shows government’s knee jerk populist reaction to UKIP surge:
”We agree with the Royal College of GPs that NHS professionals must not be turned into the UK border agency.
In terms of medical ethics and the duty of care professionals provide to the public, management of the medical condition must come first, especially if it is an emergency.
In addition, public health issues are vital for the nation’s health and immigrants must receive medical attention to address management of community acquired infections, through immunisation and treatment of conditions like TB.
The Government already has policy on this issue, albeit very confused, and this seems to be a knee jerk populist reaction by the Government to address its concerns over the surge of right wing support for UKIP.
Health tourism is a minor issue in the scheme of things with upper estimates of a cost of just 0.15% of the total NHS budget. In addition, not treating people may result in greater costs and unintended consequences further down the line”.
The NHS is now facing increasing privatisation, greater inefficiency, wasted money and rising waiting lists.
The NHS is now facing increasing privatisation, greater inefficiency, wasted money and rising waiting lists, following a crucial vote in the Lords on April 24th.
A Labour motion to annul controversial privatisation regulations was defeated by 146 votes to 254, with Lib Dems siding with the Tories.
Dr Clive Peedell, who co-founded the NHA Party in the wake of widespread and serious concerns at the Health & Social Care Act, said the repercussions for the NHS were grim and the vote was an outrage:
“The defeat of Labour’s motion to annul the S75 NHS privatisation regulations was an affront to the democratic process. Many who voted had vested interests in private companies, which will benefit from these marketising and privatising regulations.
The ambiguity of these regulations will create a goldmine for lawyers. CCGs will fear the risk of legal challenge from private companies if they don’t put services out to tender. With cash strapped budgets, they cannot afford the potential legal costs if such actions.
The NHS now threatens to be increasingly privatised and fragmented over the coming years. This will lead to greater inefficiency and wasted resources, which should be spent on frontline care. The NHS is already under huge financial strain and these changes will lead to greater rationing of care, service closures, hospital mergers, less patient choice, rising waiting lists and ultimately a move towards a mixed funding system of health care. There was no democratic mandate for this. The public deserve better than this and the National Health Action party will do its upmost to highlight this betrayal of the electorate.
The main priorities now are to raise public awareness of the privatisation of English healthcare services, support Lord Owen’s NHS reinstatement bill, and pressurise the Labour Party to stick to their promise of making the NHS the preferred provider of NHS services.
This is a very sad day for the NHS but we simply must not give up on a much loved institution that forms the heart of the social fabric of this nation. We will continue to strive for an NHS that is publicly funded, publicly provided and publicly accountable. That is the most efficient and fair way to deliver a healthcare service for all.”
Just as the Grand National ended, our co-leader Dr Clive Peedell completed a far more gruelling 35 mile ultra-marathon.
He ran from Leeds to Sheffield dressed as David Cameron with his orange poodle Cleggy – to highlight the Tory and Lib Dem government’s dismantling of the NHS.
Clive, and his fellow oncologist Dr David Wilson who was on a lead and dressed up as “Cleggy”, ran from the Department of Health in Leeds to Nick Clegg’s Sheffield Hallam constituency where he delivered an NHS death certificate.
Thanks to all of you who came to support the Cleggython.
If you couldn’t make it today, maybe you’d like to sponsor Clive. All proceeds will go towards funding the NHA Party:
http://www.
More on Clive’s thoughts after the run: http://www.nationalhealthaction.org.uk/?p=2119