Letter - NHS call to Labour
So health secretary Andrew Lansley goes, about a year too late.
His legacy will not be improved delivery or resources saved, but the massive encouragement he has given to private health firms.
They must be very grateful and, presumably, Mr Lansley – like both Milburn and Hewitt before him – can now expect to get his reward.
Meanwhile, those of us who care about the NHS are left looking at the wreckage he leaves behind, and wondering how much of the damage done can be reversed.
Will Labour commit itself to controlling the market and restoring equality of treatment?
Paul Francis, Much Wenlock
Comments for: "Letter - NHS call to Labour"
Ken Adams
Will Labour commit to controlling the market? Nope; not unless they also commit to leaving the EU.
Time to forget blaming Toriy or Labour minsters, we are in the EU we must obey EU law, get used to it.
Roger
I don't think it's a case of repairing the damage. The NHS now has to cope with Hunt. Even though Lansley was wrong about everything he got the act through Parliament and has been given a rest. Hunt is there to implement Lansley’s Act. He will be listening to nobody, that stage is over.
We the public will need to stand by our NHS staff in the coming months to make it absolutely clear to the government and Hunt that they interfere with our NHS at their peril.
Hunt's appointment signals clearly that the chips are down now and nobody is listening any more. Everybody needs to tell their Doctors that you want treatment on the NHS in a NHS Hospital. We will not support privatisation of our health. That is the road to the end of “free at the point of need”, it will be credit checks before treatment next.
Peter
Worryingly, the man put in charge of our NHS is so ignorant of science and matters of health, that he believes homeopathy works, despite the fact that a simple knowledge of 'O' level (and possibly even GCSE) chemistry and physics indicates that there is not likely to be a single molecule of active ingredient in these so-called medicines. Why are people allowed to sell these sugar pills and claim ingredients and efficacy that simply aren't there?
Presumably, given his chumminess with th Murdochs he'll be looking to jump into bed with as many private sector companies as possible to sell off bits of our essential services.
Astonishingly we waste £7 million per annum on so-called 'homeopathic hospitals' . Whilst that's a small amount in terms of the NHS's total budget, it could surely be spent better on some real medicine.