Day: November 26, 2014

Nancy Platts, the Labour parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, has challenged local MP Simon Kirby MP to back Labour’s new Bill to repeal the Tories’ new competition rules which labour say drive NHS privatisation at the expense of patient care.

LABOUR MP Clive Efford successfully introduced a Bill last week that will scrap David Cameron’s market framework for the NHS and make sure local NHS patients are always put first.

Now the Government is under pressure to honour this new bill and make sure it is enacted and enforced.

Labour say the Government has forced hospitals to open themselves up to a privatisation agenda which prioritises spending on competition lawyers and tendering exercises instead of on patient care.

Nancy Platts has backed Labour’s new Bill as a way of protecting and saving the NHS, and has challenged local MP Simon Kirby MP to do the same and ensure the government acts to make sure patients are put before profits.

Nancy said: “The Tories’ approach is to let private companies cherry-pick the most profitable NHS services, regardless of patient need, and spend more money on economic regulators and competition lawyers. Instead, Labour will ensure that the NHS once again puts patients before profits. Labour will rescue the NHS with our £2.5 billion Time to Care package which will fund new staff including 20,000 more nurses – investment the Tories will not match.  

“I had no hesitation in backing this bill as it will make sure patients in Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven are put first once again. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for our current MP. That’s why I’m challenging Simon Kirby to back the Bill now that is has passed and ensure that the government acts to enforce its provisions to protect our NHS.

“Patients in Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven are relying on him to do the right thing and back this Bill so that we can put an end to market forces being put at the heart of the NHS. Simon Kirby MP is fond of saying how he always puts his constituents first; its time he backed this up with action by ensuring that the government now listens to Parliament and acts to protect our NHS.”

Responding to the challenge, Simon Kirby, said: “I am pleased that the Bill had its second reading debate on November 21, 2014 and it was important for MPs to have the opportunity to debate the issues involved. The Government has always been clear that it is committed to protecting the NHS. That is why it has increased spending for the NHS (investing an extra £12.7 billion) and why it has guaranteed that it will always provide treatment free, regardless of ability to pay. Let me say as firmly as I can: It will not privatise the NHS.

“I am also personally committed to the NHS, which is why I campaigned so hard for the £420 million investment in the new Royal Sussex County Hospital here in Brighton which will make such a difference for patients and staff alike. I know how important the NHS is to everyone.

“The Bill seeks to prevent ‘privatisation’ that simply isn’t happening.

            •    There are no new competition provisions in the Health and Social Care Act – it simply codified practices the old PCTs were obliged to follow under European law.
           •     Private sector provision grew at twice the rate under Labour than under this Government. Only 6 pence in every pound spent by the NHS is spent with private sector providers.
           •     Labour signed contracts with the private sector that guaranteed levels of income to Independent Sector Treatment Centres regardless of the amount of work they actually carried out – which we have stopped.
            •   We have made it a matter of law that commissioners cannot pursue competition in the NHS if it is not in the interests of patients.

“The NHS Confederation, the independent membership body that represents the service, has already expressed serious concerns about the Bill, citing the ‘potential for disruption caused by further changes’.

The Bill stops local doctors making decisions about the best services for their patients. Clinical leadership is highly valued in the NHS – but this Bill seriously undermines it.

What the reforms actually did was remove layers of bureaucracy in the old SHA and PCT organisations so we have been able to recruit additional frontline staff:

• They removed 19,000 managers;
• They save the NHS £5.5 billion in this Parliament alone and then £1.5 billion every year after that;
• They mean we can afford to employ 8,000 more doctors and 5,600 more nurses on our wards compared to 2010;
• They help us to carry out nearly a million more operations a year, perform millions more diagnostic tests, and refer 51% more patients for cancer treatment, ensuring people get the care they need.

“The Bill also claims that it will stop the NHS being affected by TTIP. Labour ignore the facts here too – because if there was any risk to the NHS, I would be the first to oppose the deal. The EU’s chief negotiator on the deal has said that ‘provisions in TTIP could have no impact on the UK’s sovereign right to make changes to the NHS’.

• The EU have acknowledged that the deal ‘excludes any commitment on public services, and the governments remain at any time free to decide that certain services should be provided by the public sector’.
• Labour MP John Healey, a former Labour Minister, has said the deal protects the NHS and ‘progressives should keep campaigning’ for a TTIP deal ‘that will be good for British consumers and workers’

“And here are some other facts Labour won’t tell you – 

• Labour’s Andy Burnham remains the only Secretary of State in history to privatise the services run by an entire hospital.
• Labour went into the last election promising to increase private provision of healthcare – with their Manifesto promising to support ‘an active role for the independent sector.’
• When he was Secretary of State, Andy Burnham said that he wanted the NHS to ‘finally move beyond the polarising debates of the last decade over private or public sector provision’.

“In my view, giving operational control for the day-to-day running of services to doctors was the right decision – but it has always been clear that Ministers are responsible for the NHS, and I am proud of its performance in challenging circumstances. The Government’s health reforms have focused on the role of the GP, believing that they are best placed to commission local health services as they have the best understanding of local needs. There are now 850,000 more operations being delivered each year compared to 2010, and thousands more doctors and nurses as I mention above.”