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• Universities ‘could be operating an unofficial cartel’ over tuition fees, says Unite
• Osborne rearranged the furniture, what Britain needed was a plan B
• 'Bleak Britain' - money worries, job fears, families hurting hardest
• Unite reaction to banking report
• UK training is model for new EU agreement for chemical and process workers
• Coffin symbolises coalition addiction to NHS privatisation
• Children and young people in South London could be hit by mental health services being axed, says Unite
• Unite names and shames NHS trusts and PCTs refusing bank holiday pay for royal wedding
• Independent poll shows massive opposition to privatisation of the NHS blood service
• Coalition’s plans to deny workplace justice for employees is based on ‘myths’, says Unite

Coffin symbolises coalition addiction to NHS privatisation

28 March 2011

A coffin to symbolise the death of the NHS due to a surfeit of privatisation will be paraded outside parliament tomorrow (Tuesday 29 March 2011).

Unite, the largest union in the country, has collected 13,000 signatures to a letter to the committee of MPs scrutinising the impact of the Health and Social Care bill, currently going through parliament.

The coffin marked with NHS in white letters will be held by health campaigners mourning the death of the NHS at 12.30pm Palace Yard (next to College Green), Westminster SW1.

Unite will present a letter to Labour MP, Grahame Morris, a member of the Commons health select committee, which is currently scrutinising the Health and Social Care bill.

Unite national officer for health, Rachael Maskell said: "We are writing to urge you to protect the NHS from the savage and unnecessary reforms put forward in the bill.

"The reforms contained within this bill will reduce the quality of health services available to people in the UK, increase healthcare costs, and ultimately widen health inequality."

Unite has specifically identified six areas that must be amended to protect the NHS now, and for future generations. These are:

The inclusion of an asset lock provision within the bill to stop taxpayers’ property from being handed over to big business to raise cash.

• A cap on private patients income (PPI) to safeguard against the reduction of non-fee paying patients.
• Legislation to ensure that competition is measured on quality and service delivered, rather than price.
• Protection for NHS staffing and their terms and conditions, rather than reforms which allow competition to cause widespread reductions in pay and services.
• Transparency, such as applying Freedom of Information across all healthcare providers.
• All NHS bodies and healthcare providers to be accountable to parliament.

ENDS

Notes to news editors:

Unite will have its own photographer, and can supply photos of this event. Please contract, Unite communications officer, Shaun Noble on 07768 693940

For further information, please ring Unite campaigns officer, Liane Groves on 07793 661 657

A photo opportunity will be available with a black coffin with white letters NHS on top, at Palace Yard opposite parliament Tuesday 29 March at 12.30pm.