- Conference
- 2009 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 1 December 2008
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
UNISON branches and members have been to the forefront of campaigns over the last two decades and more to keep our national health service public and have, when necessary and allowed, taken industrial action to maintain a public service with hardworking, fairly-paid, in-house employment.
Successive governments, supposed economic think tanks, business organisations and senior managers within the NHS have told the public and employees that only private business can provide an efficient, well managed, cost effective health service across the UK. A publicly-run service would apparently be bureaucratic, inefficient, poorly administered and waste financial resources.
These arguments were blown apart by the events in the banking and financial industries in the autumn of 2008. Capitalism – the economic system which promotes the private ownership of the world’s resources at the expense of the wellbeing of the majority of the world’s population – proved to billions that it was incapable of breaking out of its boom and bust cycle. The boom – which millions of us missed out on anyway – went spectacularly bust.
Conference is incensed by the double standards of the government in relation to ‘market logic’ and the Private Finance Initiative, which has been repeatedly shown to be poor value for money. The theory is that PFI means that financial risk transfers to the private sector, but the credit crunch has shown that financial risk in PFI projects remains with the public sector, with the government in some cases having to use public money to underwrite the projects or to bail out the private banks who are supposedly carrying the risk of the PFI projects.
The billions of pounds given to the banks to bail them out of the mess of their own system’s making represented half the spending on the NHS in a solitary year. £5 billion was infact clawed back from the NHS. This financial diversion of funds from our public services will inevitably continue leading to redundancies, closures, downgrading and, incredibly to UNISON members, further privatisation of NHS services.
Also, Conference notes with strong concern attempts to hand over NHS organisations to be run under ‘franchises’, particularly from the private sector. Private sector organisations would seek to reduce the deficit by making major cuts in unprofitable services and focussing on those which can make money. In addition, there are very serious questions regarding the terms and conditions of those employed at any NHS facility where a ‘franchise’ takes over. The health service group accordingly resolves to oppose ‘franchising’ of NHS facilities wherever this menace raises its head, seeking support from other sections of the union including the UNISON-Labour Link to do so, but particularly by joining forces with all those in the communities who are working to defeat privatisation and defend the National Health Service.
Conference calls on the Health Group Executive to:
1.Continue to build a high profile UNISON campaign against further privatisation in the NHS, taking this into the TUC for wider support and involving community campaigning groups who share our views;
2.Assist branches and regions in maximising publicity across the UK against privatisation and cuts and to support and organise local, regional and national demonstrations/days of actions in defence of the NHS. Conference recognises that it is imperative there be no delay in organising such events when attacks are announced.
3.To support UNISON members fighting privatisation, redundancies, closure of NHS services, downgrading of posts or other cuts, including organising legal industrial action where members vote in favour of it.