MADAM –Re: Attempts to Rescue our NHS (page 5 of the SNJ 09/07/14)
It is really heartening to read that David Drew is supporting Clive Efford’s NHS bill following much discussion around Lord David Owen’s NHS Reinstatement Bill (which can be viewed in full on www.OpenDemocracy.net).
Efford’s bill really highlights problems with the new health service, problems based around the new legal punctuating of policies which route way back to Margaret Thatcher and John Major and were then accelerated by the last Labour government.
However, Lord Owen’s bill is incredibly important too, perhaps more so as it would do what is proposed in Efford’s bill and shut off other avenues for profiting from misery.
The new laws following the Health and Social Care Act of 2012 mean the government no longer has a legal duty to provide a national health service.
This is of huge importance, as this responsibility is the absolute foundation that ensures a government provides a fair and comprehensive service.
Last week, on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, the chairman of Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (GPs in charge of service provision), spoke of how the CCG went to the Department of Health for advice on tendering the locally, NHS-run, out-of-hours service.
The Department of Health concurred with the advice given by the CCG’s solicitors, Bevan Brittan.
And here we see why the duty of government is so important.
The legislation that encourages the tendering out of services was written with advice from a past director of Bevan Brittan, who was also a director of a private providers’ NHS group.
Bevan Brittan is a donor and corporate partner (along with G4S, Serco, KPMG etc.) of the ‘think-tank’, Reform, that called for further cuts to the NHS, a monthly fee from the public for the right to access some services and full ‘marketisation’ of the NHS.
So why would advice from the Department of Health or from our CCG’s solicitors give a fair assessment of the situation with regard to who can run NHS services and how they should win contracts?
Of course, if the government had a legal duty to ensure all our health care provision was equitable, fair and comprehensive then perhaps we could trust their advice, and our CCG, on such matters.
I do support David in this and await eagerly the full wording of Efford’s bill.
I hope it has the potential for the same outcome as Lord Owen’s bill and it is not simply an election tool.
Hannah Basson
Keep Our NHS Public, Gloucestershire contact