A Future That Works

A Future That Works
NO2aTory/Liberal coalition - Vote with your feet for an alternative to a neo-liberal economy and neo-conservative state Yes2aLeftFront and a Red/Green Left Alliance

Monday 5 September 2011

So much for the Tory/Liberal promise that the NHS wouldn’t be privatized

German company Helios have had secret talks with the Tory/Liberal coalition government regarding managing 20 British NHS hospitals. Government ministers have twice met officials from medical giant Helios. It would receive millions of taxpayers’ money from the government and be free of government controls on managing the hospitals it will run.

The Heath Service unions say Helios has a reputation across Europe for cutting staff and making cuts. Shadow Health Secretary John Healey commented that ‘‘this looks like a secret plan for privatising hospitals and reveals the Tories’ long-term plans for the NHS’’.

Whilst David Cameron’s Tory/Liberal coalition have promises no more NHS privatisation his government has been holding secret talks with a German private hospital group which owns 64 hospitals across Europe and has a record of cutting jobs and wages.

The Tory/Liberal coalition government’s aims to cut £20billion from the NHS, budget over the next four years with over 50,000 nurse and midwife jobs to be axed in its shake-up. According to Labour figures since the Tory/Liberal coalition came to power 400,000 more patients suffer longer waiting times for NHS care than before the 2010 election.

‘‘Free for all, based on need and not the ability to pay, the NHS became Britain’s greatest institution’’

‘‘More than 60 years on and the health service is still a source of pride attracting jealous glances from those on the Continent whose health systems demand costly wrangling’s with insurance salesmen’’

(Daily Mirror comment Monday 05/09/2011)

7 comments:

  1. Another good reason why the British Left parties needs to join with the European Left parties in the fightback against further privatisation and the Lisbon Program/Treaty and EU Directives for marketization and privatization of state owned industries, health care and social provisions.

    It’s time for Left Unity; it’s time for communists and socialists to be at the Europe Against Austerity conference in London on 1st of October 2011.

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  2. Amongst the main speakers will be Pierre Laurent President of the European Left is also the National Secretary of the Parti Communiste Francais, Sevim Dagdelen MP Die LInke, Germany, Jeremy Corbyn MP Labour, Britain and Len McCluskey General Secretary of the Unite Union.

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  3. The NHS Bill returns to the Commons amid anger over its provisions to increase competition and the role of the private sector. Opposition to the Health and Social Care Bill in the Lords will be championed by Shirley Williams, who warned there are ‘‘huge concerns’’ over the planned reforms saying there was doubt over whether it would require the Health Service to deliver a ‘‘comprehensive health service for the people of England, free at the point of need’’ and asked why ministers were ‘‘bewitched’’ by the market system in the USA when the NHS was ‘‘among the most efficient, least expensive and fairest anywhere in the world’’.

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  4. Emails released in response to a Freedom of Information request showed management consultants McKinsey had acted as broker between the department and foreign firms for contracts worth millions of pounds.

    Christina McAnea Unison's National Secretary for health says the Liberal-Democrats have colluded with the Conservatives to ‘‘break up and privatise the NHS’’.

    Management expert Sir Geoffrey Robinson warns on the BBC Panorama programme that these reforms could spell the end of the NHS saying ‘‘The stakes here are huge, the very existence of the NHS could depend on getting this right’’.

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  5. The NHS is a lasting tribute to the Marxist Labour MP Nye Bevan along with the programme of Council Housing that he led after the Second World War which helped to set the foundations of the social-democratic for of welfare capitalism now threatened in Britain and across Europe by ideology of neo-liberal/neo-conservative privatization and deregulation.

    Now is the time for a United Left Coalition to lead resistance to the greed of the capitalist elite and draw a line which says ‘No more retreats from the post-war social-democratic settlement, now the people fightback’. We see their fat cat bonuses and gold plated pensions whilst the working classes of Britain and Europe are told they must work longer for less reward and less regulation on health and safety so that they can have their cake and eat it.

    Do they think the people haven’t made the connection between increasing bonuses and salaries for the capitalist elite and reduced pension entitlements, social security and health care for the people? Do they think that the working classes are so taken in by the claims that ‘‘there is no alternative’’ or that ‘‘we are all in this together’’.

    As they say ‘‘you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time’’ and the time has come to say we are not going to be fooled any longer by neo-liberal/neo-conservative ideology, which is a theoretical pretext for robing the working classes of the surplus-value of their labour and expropriating it for a parasitic capitalist class.

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  6. Crunch NHS vote: e-mail your MP

    Now is the moment is make sure our MPs are in no doubt: we want them to say no to these dangerous changes to our health service

    http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/speakout/crunch-nhs-vote-email-your-mp

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  7. Is the NHS and healthcare of the people of Britain safe in their hands?

    The Tory/Liberal coalition government have instructed the NHS to make savings of £20bn over four years and that some hospital will have to close to meet budget demands.

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