The National Health Action candidate for Eastleigh is Dr. Iain Maclennan

 I have lived in Hampshire for most of my life and have worked as a doctor for 10 years in the Royal Navy before working as a consultant in public health for the NHS.

During my time as a doctor I have become increasingly aware of how key issues like security, nutrition, housing, employment and comunity are to illness and recovery. This has been true everywhere I have worked, from GP surgeries in rural England to AIDS control programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa. The nation’s health certainly is NOT a single issue!

Every week more NHS services are being outsourced to private companies.  This is making co-ordinated, first class heath care impossible.  This process loads extra costs on an already overstretched health budget.

A hospital should strive for the greatest patient care and safety. Privatised hospitals strive for greater profits, leading to the cost-cutting which caused the atrocities in Mid-Staffordshire. This must NOT be allowed to happen again!

We must reverse Labour’s conversion of hospitals into finance-driven entities and we must reverse the Coalition’s plans to sell all the nation’s healthcare to private bidders. If we fail there will be many more cases like Mid Staffs.

I will work to:

• Protect the Royal County Hospital from the encroachment of profit-driven companies
• Base health and social care on fair ethical principles, due process and governance
• De-commercialise the health system, with co-operation not markets.
• Abolish the hugely expensive purchaser/provider split and wasteful competition.
• Increase the patients’ and citizens’ participation in the organisation and provision of healthcare
• Reduce the influence of the costly management consultancy industry
• Improve the integration of community and hospital care within the NHS, as well as between the NHS and social care
• Promote innovative public health approaches to health improvement
• Reform the current unfair, overly complex and unsustainable social care system and to promote a fair, effective and efficient health and social care programme integrated with sound public health and just economic policies

I vow to seek constant impovement of the NHS if elected.

Accountability – I am committed to debating major issues in the local media, public meetings and social media before voting so that you, the electorate, have can see and have a say in what I as your representative will be doing on your behalf.

Thank you for reading,

Iain

 

Iain’s politcal career

Iain got into politics after his frustration at health issues not being handled appropriately at the political level.

He was a member of the Green Party from 2005 until 2013.

He stood as a candidate in the Eastleigh Borough Council elections of 2011 and 2012 representing the Bursledon and Old Netley ward and was selected by the Green Party to be their parliamentary candidate for Eastleigh.

In view of the importance he personally attaches to health service issues in the current political climate, Iain accepted the National Health Action party’s invitation to stand as their candidate in this very important election.