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5 major problems with Tory/LibDem law destroying our NHS

In 2012, the Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats passed a law that opened up the NHS up to rapid, dangerous privatisation.

1.  The law was opposed by doctors, nurses, midwives, allied medical professions and patients- but the government ignored them all and introduced the largest top-down reorganisation of the NHS in its history.

In total, 25 organisations opposed the idea – including the British Medical Association, Royal College of Nurses, Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of GPs, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, British Psychological Society, Institute of Healthcare Management and the UK Faculty of Public Health.

 

via The Guardian

 

2. 3 out of 4 Doctors say the law the Tories and Liberal Democrats passed has fragmented NHS care.
Only one in twenty Doctors think it has improved care and half of Doctors say their workload is now ‘unmanagable’.  The chair of the largest organisation that represents Doctors, the BMA, wrote this letter to all MPs to complain about the Act.

via BMA

3. Since the law was passed, the value of contracts given to the private sector has gone up three times in one year (£13.5billion last year).  This law is privatising the NHS so quickly that if it is not repealed, the NHS as we know it will be gone by the end of the next parliament.

via NHS Support Federation

4. The law has no mandate.  It came from a Tory-led Government with no House of Commons majority, which promised NOT to reorganise the NHS.

via Buzzfeed / Another Angry Voice

It was even preceded by statements from the coalition leaders which denied the very essence of the act

via NHS Support Federation

4. Each time you are cared for by a private company, some of your tax money is given to shareholders, instead of being reinvested in the NHS.  The longer this privatisation goes on, the more power that private healthcare companies will have to start deciding which care we receive for free, and which care we will have to pay for ourselves (by taking out private insurance policies).

via Kitty S Jones

Private health companies have a long history of giving large sums of money to politicians (rather than their staff).  This explains why politicians often act in the interests of private companies, rather than the voters who pay for the NHS.  For a recent list of private healthcare donations to MPs, see here.

5. The Government used another law (the Care Act) to smuggle in an amendment to the original Health and Social Care Act, which granted politicians the power to close down a local successful hospital in order to balance the books at a completely different hospital or NHS Trust.

This amendment was pushed through because the High Court deemed it ‘unlawful’ for Jeremy Hunt to try and sacrifice Lewisham Hospital in order to pay the PFI debt at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.  The ‘Hospital Closure Clause’ means any hospital in the country can be closed down, rapidly, and without consultation of experts or locals.  Instead, decisions will be made by ‘Administrators’ who have no clinical experience.

via Demotix

 

On election day, you need to think if you trust your local MP to make sure NHS will continue to look after you and your loved ones safely for the next 5 years.  Or if they are going to ignore the experts and destroy the NHS for ever.

Take a look at this list to see which MPs voted for the Health and Social Care Act.  (If there is an ‘aye’ next their name, then they PRIVATISED the NHS, against medical advice – The MPs are listed alphabetically- but you can look for your constituency on that page by pressing CTRL+F on your keyboard, then typing the constituency name)

And this list tells you which MPs voted to close any local hospital in the country for financial reasons – even if the financial problem is another region and without having to fully consult the experts or local residents. (If there is a ‘no’ next to their name, then they SUPPORT closing any local hospital in the country)

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