There’s still time to get your Member of Parliament to vote for Clive Efford’s bill to protect the NHS tomorrow – and UNISON members joined colleagues from other health unions yesterday to push the case to MPs in person.
The unions see the National Health Services (Amended Duties and Powers) Bill as a step in the right direction to ridding the NHS of the worst parts of the government’s pro-privatisation Health and Social Care Act 2012, by rewriting the rules that force competitive tendering of NHS services.
The bill will restore the responsibility to the health secretary to provide a comprehensive health service, free at the point of delivery and prevents foundation frusts from prioritising private income at the expense of NHS patients.
As members met MPs yesterday, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “Cameron’s Health and Social Care Act has caused huge damage to our NHS by selling off a range of vital services to private healthcare companies.
“Clive Efford’s bill aims to put a halt to this shameful project by protecting the NHS from the ravages of competition law and rightly placing patient care before profits.
“The bill ensures that Britain’s most loved institution operates on its founding principles of a service that meets the needs of patients and is free at the point of delivery.
“It also protects the NHS from exploitative competition and shields the service from the damaging implications of TTIP and any other international trade agreements.
“The NHS is a key political area for the next general election.
“And now is the time for MPs in this coalition government to admit they got in wrong in 2012 and vote for this bill.”
Since the Health and Social Care Act came into force in 2013, more than £7bn worth of NHS contracts has been put out to competitive tender – and 56% of that went to private providers.
National Health Services (Amended Duties and Powers) Bill
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