Crunch week for NHS as ‘privatisation’ controversy rages over PM's
'pledges'
10 June 2011
As the future of the NHS faces a crunch week, Unite, the largest
union in the country, has issued a new briefing saying the prime
minister’s pledges on the health service were ‘a personal guarantee
of chaos’.
Unite, which has a 100,000 members in the health service, said
that David Cameron’s recent speech outlining his five ‘personal
guarantees’ would actually make matters worse rather than
better.
The briefing can be viewed on the Unite website:
http://www.unitetheunion.org/pdf/110608%20Unite%20Briefing%20on%20DC%20speech.pdf
The briefing comes as the Future Forum, which has been carrying
out consultations during ‘the pause’ in the progress of the
controversial Health and Social Care bill, is due to unveil its
report on Monday (13 June). The government’s response is expected
later in the week.
Unite national officer for health, Rachael Maskell said: ”This
is, indeed, a crunch week for the NHS. Health professionals
have made it very clear that these proposals won’t work – and this
was overwhelmingly restated by doctors this week at the British
Medical Association's annual GP conference in London.
”Now is the time for the MPs to listen very carefully to what
the professionals and their constituents are saying. People really
rely on the NHS which they don’t want privatised for profit. MPs,
especially the Liberal Democrats, should put the founding
principles of the NHS before narrow party advantage.
”It is time to scrap the bill and conduct a proper review of
what is needed for the long- term needs of the NHS and our nation’s
health, rather than rush through a biased, lop-sided listening
exercise. It is time for a commission of genuinely independent
experts to be set up.”
Unite believes that the prime minister’s ‘compromises’ will
neither meet the concerns of his Liberal Democratic allies,
outlined at their spring conference in March, nor protect the NHS
from rapacious private healthcare companies wishing to gobble up
profitable and ‘cherry picked’ health service contracts to the
detriment of a joined-up and universal health service.
ENDS
Notes to news editors:
For further information please contact Unite communications
officer Shaun Noble on 07768 693940
