Unite refutes Department of Health ‘myth buster’ document
6 September 2011
Commenting on the Department of Health's myth buster published
on the day of the report stage of the Health and Social Care bill
Rachael Maskell, Unite national officer for health, said: "The
Department of Health is continuing to push a wholly inaccurate spin
on what is behind the Health and Social Care bill. Its 'myth
buster' deserves a myth buster of its own, based on what will
really happen to the NHS.
"To say administrative costs will reduce by a third, when 162
organisations are about to be replaced with over 500 new bodies
beggars belief.
"That vast swathes won't eventually end up being run by
profit-driven foreign owned companies is also a lie. Reports leaked
this weekend show the Department of Health is in talks with a
German company to run 20 hospitals and the likes of American
multinational United are licking their lips in anticipation of the
profits coming their way when the NHS is opened up to EU
competition law.
"The NHS reforms have been slated by almost the whole of the
medical and other health professions.
"David Cameron promised no more top down reorganisations of the
NHS, yet these reforms are already causing chaos in the NHS, and
are, in reality, an untested ideological gamble with an
organisation that is the most equitable, cost effective and
comprehensive health care system in the world. How much more spin
can Cameron put on this bill which clearly hands the NHS over from
the state to the private sector?"
ENDS
Notes to news editors:
For further information please contact Unite communications officer
Liane Groves on 07793 661 657
