Well that was fun. This grey Sunday afternoon I went round my neighbours with two sheets of paper, one a double sided page of A4 setting out the evidence that the NHS is being privatised, and the other a voting slip saying
I WANT MY MP TO HALT AND REVERSE THE PRIVATISATION OF THE NHS .
Put your X against the word that fits your opinion:
AGREE
DISAGREE.
They have a week to make up their minds, as I will collect the voting slip next week.
It was very pleasant meeting and chatting with neighbours, especially as we don't see much of each other in the winter.
This is the first step of a campaign in North Somerset, and I (and I hope a few others) will be plodding round our neighbours over the coming months, collecting views. I am hoping that the result will be a clear majority wanting John Penrose MP, and Liam Fox MP, who is in the other constituency in North Somerset, to be faced with the fact that their stance (denial that NHS privatisation is taking place) is in directly opposed to the wished of the vast majority of their constituents. This is politically embarrassing, to say the least.
Here are the papers I am giving out:
NHS PRIVATISATION: THE EVIDENCE
It is a
commonly claimed that the NHS is being privatised. Privatisation is defined as
the transfer of services or assets from public ownership to private
corporations.
Politicians often try to deny NHS privatisation is taking place, or try to confuse the issue, so here are the
plain facts in a very brief summary.
1. In 1987 Margaret Thatcher
introduced the “Internal Market” in the NHS, creating a division between purchasers
and providers of care services. This immediately increased complexity into the
NHS, with more administrative work needed to calculate (or estimate) the costs
of everything from brain surgery to a cardboard bedpan. This administrative
work has imposed a serious cost burden on the NHS.
2. The Private Finance Initiative
(PFI) which used private money to build
hospitals, ran from 1992 until 2018. It provided £13bn, but will cost the NHS £80bn
by the time the debt is repaid. This benefits the private sector, but cripples
the NHS.
3. Foundation Trusts were introduced
by a Labour Government, which breaks the NHS down into smaller chunks which can
be sold off. This was attempted in the case of Hillingdon Hospital, but the
experiment failed.
4. GPs have been re-organised into
consortia, which again are capable of being sold off.
5. Lansley’s Health and Social Care
Bill in 2012 removed the responsibility for the Secretary of State for Health
to care for the NHS, and obliged NHS Trusts to put contracts out to tender.
Since then, contracts worth billions have gone to the private sector. In the
five years to 2015 the private sector was awarded the majority of the contracts
for the following: Pharmacy, patient transport, diagnostics and GP out of
hours.
6. In the course of negotiations of
a post-Brexit trade deal, US corporations were very keen to reduce the ability
of the NHS to control drug prices. Their plans could increase the cost of drugs
to the NHS by a massive £27 billion.
7.
Integrated Care Systems were introduced in 2017,
and are very similar to US Accountable Care Organisations. Their aim is to
reduce spending. If a private partner in the ICS manages to reduce spending, it
is allowed to keep the savings. This is an incentive to cut corners.
8.
Sir Simon Stevens, (until recently, CEO or head of
NHS England), introduced Sustainability and Transformation plans. These aim to
reduce NHS beds (the UK has among the lowest ratio of beds to population in the
developed world), save £5 billion a year in NHS spending, and reduce the number
of A&E departments in the UK from 144 to 50. Sir Simon opposed Obamacare
when he was CEO of a US healthcare corporation.
9.
Car parks, cleaning, portering and catering have all
been privatised.
10.
Hospitals are increasingly renting space and
facilities to private health care organisations.
11.
Increasing numbers of private centres are being set
up to do things like hip replacement surgery, which are simple and relatively
predictable. If anything goes wrong subsequently, the NHS is expected to put
things right, not the private corporation who did the operation.
All of this is evidence of a
gradual process of privatisation of the NHS.
On the next page we discuss the
debate about privatisation.
The Debate about NHS
Privatisation
Politicians argue that GPs, pharmacists, dentists and opticians have
always been independent sub-contractors. This is true, but this arrangement was
stable, whereas since 1987, the changes that Conservatives (and to a lesser
extent, Labour and LibDems) brought in have been causing the role of private
agencies to expand steadily.
Politicians
argue that privatised healthcare is more
efficient than care provided by the NHS. This is just not true. Private
provision is far more expensive because of all the bills and invoices which have
to generated. Different sections of the NHS, which just used to cooperate, now
have to send each other itemised bills. In the US, administration costs
amount to about 40% of total healthcare costs; in the UK before privatisation
began, administration costs were 6%. In addition to administrative
costs, private corporations will always cream off some of the money they get
from Government to run the service as profits to give dividends to their
shareholders.
Politicians
argue that it does not matter who owns
the bricks and mortar of the place where treatment takes place, so long as the
treatment is delivered. PFI (see other side) proves this to be wrong. It
is more efficient for the NHS to own its own hospital than to pay rent or
interest to a corporation.
Politicians
argue that health care costs are
rising unsustainably, so something must be done. Rising costs of health care is
a universal problem in the modern world, and the NHS is placed in the middle
the range in international comparisons regarding cost. Privatisation will
only add to the cost. Health care in the USA is about twice as expensive as the
NHS, and it serves fewer people, proportionately. Real social and economic
reforms will reduce health costs, not privatisation.
If we,
the people, do not stop the
process of privatisation, we will be left with a rump NHS that does emergency
care while anything that is remotely profitable will have been sold off. Private
care facilities may be able to perform procedures like cataract surgery to hip
replacement, but they do not have A&E departments. Any emergencies in these
facilities will be shunted over to the NHS to be sorted out.
At the
end of the privatisation process lies insurance-based health care. Insurance is
always based on risk assessment, which means that high-risk patients, and those
unable to afford the premiums, will be left to fend for themselves. In other
words, they will be left untreated, maybe to die.
Protect
Our NHS is conducting an opinion poll in North Somerset. You will have received
a polling slip with this page.
Please join
in and cast your vote, so that we can tell your MP exactly how much local opposition
there is to the Government’s NHS Privatisation Plans.
If you
have any questions about this initiative, or if you want to help, please email rlawson@gn.apc.org
YOUR NHS:
DO YOU WANT TO KEEP IT PUBLIC AND FREE?
This survey
is being carried out by the North Somerset branch of the Keep Our NHS Public
organisation to find out what local voters want to happen to the NHS.
We have
given you a sheet titled “NHS Privatisation: The Evidence” which sets out in briefly
what has been happening to the NHS since 1987, and deals with the arguments politicians
give for NHS privatisation.
Now it is up
to you, to state your opinion. Please vote by putting X by the word
which matches your opinion:
I WANT MY
MP TO WORK TO HALT AND REVERSE THE PRIVATISATION OF THE NHS
Agree
…
Disagree …
All people
in the household who are of voting age can vote. Just put one X per voter.
We intend to
publicise the results of this survey in local press and radio.
If you would
like to help our campaign to protect the NHS by writing to your MP, or by
helping to distribute this survey, just add your telephone number or email to
your address, and we will get in touch with you.
We will not share your details with any other person or organisation.
Thank you
for participating
Please feel free to copy and join in if you wish
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