Why this Government bill could be bad for our health ; Letters Letters start here

Urgent action is needed now to save our NHS from theprivatisation and fragmentation which will result from theGovernment's NHS and Social Care Bill.

This was the message given by Professor Wendy Savage, an eminentdoctor and campaigner, to over 200 people who crowded into theFriends Meeting House, in Bath, on Friday, November 4. Waiting listsare already growing and some treatments are being restricted as theNHS struggles to find Pounds 20 billion of savings.

The last thing the NHS needs is another costly and timewastingtop down re-organisation, but this is already happening as theGovernment makes use of existing powers to abolish Primary CareTrusts and make arrangements with foreign companies to take over NHShospitals.

There will be more costly upheaval if the bill is implemented infull.

I was particularly struck by Professor Savage's detaileddescription of how democracy itself has been undermined by thepassage of the bill. The push to introduce market based healthcarehas not come from the public or clinicians and workers in the NHSbut from private healthcare companies and consultancies who stand toprofit from taking over NHS services funded by the taxpayer.

These powerful corporations (many of them based in the USA) havebig budgets to relentlessly lobby politicians and to fund so calledindependent think tanks. Professor Savage demonstrated clearly thatthere is no evidence that private healthcare providers are moreefficient.

In fact, the opposite is true. In the USA there is more spendingon health but their market-based system delivers very unequalhealthcare to its citizens and a much bigger slice of the budgetgoes on management and administration.

The British public were not given an opportunity to vote on theseproposals at the general election and recent polls show that theyare not in favour.

The majority of doctors oppose this bill. Our politicalrepresentatives are not listening, MPs voted through thiscomplicated and seriously flawed legislation, with indecent haste,even though many had not even read it.

Why do powerful private healthcare companies and their lobbyistshold more sway over our politicians than patients and healthcareprofessionals? We need to ask our MPs why this is allowed to happenin a democracy? Building on the meeting last Friday, the 38 DegreesBath Group will be campaigning with Keep Our NHS Public to putpressure on local MPs, and to lobby members of the House of Lords toget this Bill scrapped or radically amended.

To join the campaign or for further information visitwww.38degreesbath.co.uk.

PAM RICHARDS Lower Weston, Bath