As Labour prepare bill to try to stop 'privatisation' of health service
Labour’s parliamentary candidate Ruth Cadbury has written directly to local Conservative MP Mary Macleod challenging her to defend the Government’s NHS reforms in the run up to a private members’ bill being debated on 21st November.
In response Mary Macleod has accused Ruth Cadbury of "scaremongering" on the issue and said it would be better if the Labour Party candidate stood up for the huge achievements hard-working local NHS workers had delivered.
This bill will call on the Government to stop the further privatisation of the NHS, restore the legal duty of the Secretary of State for Health to provide National Health Services and amend the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to remove controversial competition requirements.
The private members’ bill on 21 November is being tabled by Labour MP Clive Efford and a petition has been set up to support the bill (see below).
In the letter Ruth Cadbury questions whether the Tories’ agenda of further privatisation is fundamentally opposed to the founding principle of the NHS, where patients are put before profit.
Ruth said; "I keep meeting people who have experienced first-hand the effects of Tory re-organisation, privatisation and cut-backs. These range from the loss of a GP surgery in Spring Grove, longer waits to see their GP or at hospital, and NHS staff who worry that their care and professionalism is being undermined on a daily basis."
She added "Many are worried as to the impact of the propsoed closure of A&E services at Charing Cross and Ealing hospitals, and Hounslow Council is having to deal with yet more cuts in Government funding meaning that Care services are under further pressure to cope".
Labour has already said it will repeal the Coalition Government’s Health and Social care bill if it wins the General Election in May 2015.
Since the Coalition’s £3 billion top-down reorganisation, figures show that in this constituency one in five patients now has to wait at least 7 days to see their GP and waiting times for A&E and operations in London are on the rise again.
The NHS is a key part of Labour’s General Election both nationally and in Brentford and Isleworth. Its commitments include guaranteeing people a GP appointment within 48 hours, funding 20,000 more nurses and combining health and social care into a single service.
In response, Mary Macleod said: “Ed Miliband’s local candidate for Brentford and Isleworth continues to scaremonger local people on the NHS. This Government’s record speaks for itself: over 4,000 more doctors, over 3,500 ,more nurses, over 8,000 fewer managers, spending up by over £12 billion, over 850,000 more operations than in 2010 and a new cancer drugs fund that has helped over 30,000 people. Just last week, the Commonwealth Fund named the NHS under this Government the best health service in the world. Perhaps she should stop talking down our health service and local hospitals and stand up for the huge achievements hard-working local NHS workers have delivered?”
November 4, 2014
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