Letter: Sea-change at the NHS
You could hardly make it up. Most people were delighted in the Olympic Ceremony to see medical staff, who had rehearsed in their own time, dancing in a celebration of the NHS.
It is now rumoured that Jeremy Hunt, then Culture Secretary, tried to ban this as ‘inappropriate’.
He is now Minister in charge if the health service. The justification for his appointment is, apparently, ‘communication skills’.
The health service has been given an impossible cuts target, probably £5 billion. This will cause unavoidable hospital closures, with already a few taken over by private profit companies.
Already the new BMA leader, Dr Mark Porter, has revealed GP practices are to be offered £4 per patient to restrict tests and hospital treatment.
There are now long, enforced waiting lists for surgery for knees, hips and cataract, but with pressure to use private health companies for those who can pay.
Many multinational companies, including G4S, are hoping to buy into the NHS brand. Most people believe this is the principle we pay, through taxation, when well, for other people’s care, with the collective contract that we will receive the same when we are ill.
We have lived with this for over 60 years. Now hospitals can make up to 49 per cent of beds available for private patients, there will be strong pressure for people with the ability to pay to do so, out of desperation.
Then will come health insurance, the cause of so many American bankruptcies, with a shoddy, or even no treatment for those who cannot afford it.
Jeremy Hunt is only the public face for this sea-change in one of the best features of British life.
We must support all opposition in the last few opportunities when the changes are implemented.
Liz Simblet
Shrewsbury
Comments for: "Letter: Sea-change at the NHS"
Suzanne Kelsey
Well said Liz more of us should be writing letters to our local newspapers to highlight what is happening as there is still a lot of ignorance, otherwise the petition that has just been sent to JH through 38 degrees would have had more signatures, or have people just given up.
I sincerely hope not!
As someone who has worked hard in an educational career all of my life, paid my taxes and insurance and hopefully made a difference to the lives of many young people I am doing my fair share of campaigning even after being diagnosed with a serious chronic illness.
However we need healthy young people to join the cause and fight for the same equality and fairness that some of us have had for over 60 years. The problem is I think the NHS and 'free at point of use' treatment is ingrained in their psyche and they cannot envisage a time without it, to put it simply they take it for granted and do not believe a government would be so reckless as to destroy that wonderful public service and cause hardship and extreme worry for the citizens of this country. Wake up the next generation before it is too late!
Write to your newspapers, get involved in rallies, tell your peers what is happening etc... do your bit in the same way our fathers and grandfathers fought for the freedom from fear in two world wars many losing their lives!!!!! Do not let that all be in vain! Thank you
James
Well said, Ms Simblet. Mr Hunt is the man who tried to wave through Phone Hacking PLC's (aka News International's) bid to gain a near-monopoly on the British media. He has talked of 'denationalising' (ie privatising) the NHS, possibly our country's greatest single institution. He needs watching in the way a hawk watches a rodent.
Petition here : http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2012/09/05/jeremy-hunt-protect-out-nhs/
John Bowden
Alas i don't think letter writing will make any difference, we have tried it
already, we have had nurses and medical staff go on strike, even the doctors
have been on strike. This particular party that's in power at the moment starved
the NHS and the education system the last time they were in power, now they want
to privatise it so they and their rich mates can funnel more tax payers money
into their pockets. Has any one really studied the full cost of privatisation?
The last time they were in power they sold off the electric and gas boards that
we owned and now we have some of the highest energy costs in the whole of Europe
even though we get our gas from the same world markets and the energy companies
increase their profits every year in-spite of a world recession. The UK market
was set up in such a way that the watch dog can not work out who or where we are
being ripped off. The same party sold off the phone company we owned, years
later the EU politicians force these phone companies to lower their prices,
(note not our government or telecom's watch dog). Then there was the disastrous
privatisation of the railways that ended up with the deaths of rail travellers
due to the rail track owning company thinking it was better to pay large
dividends to share holders and fat bonuses to them selves than maintain the very
infrastructure that was earning the money. All you home owners, how do you feel
about the removal of legislation that allowed the financial system to commit
and get away with £9 billion + insurance fraud and the world wide base lending
rate fraud committed by the banks that has resulted in your biggest investment
loosing 20+% of its value
In the future when the privatised NHS is so expensive and we have another dot
com or housing bubble burst the waiting lists for treatment and operations will
be so long the it will be a death sentence for the poor, disabled and out of
work. It won't worry the rich, as they will always be able to afford the cost of
treatment.
In a way its the governments way of getting rid of poverty, your poor, you get
ill, you die. No more poor!
If we relay want to change things then we need to tear down the government and
financial system that we have now and create a government that works for the
voter not the financial industry and world wide corporations
Ken Adams
The problem for the NHS is that it is a state monopoly trying to work within a system designed to remove state monopolies and open up all state services and create a level playing field for any company from anywhere in the EU. This in short means privatisation of all state services.
To argue for retaining or reinstating the state monopoly without even mentioning the base problem is a total waste of time and to do so from the perspective of the party political is at best misleading.
John Bowden is right to say if we really want to change things then we need to tear down the government and financial system that we have now and create a government that works for the voter.