At a full Coventry City Council meeting on January 17th rulling Labour Councillors moved a motion voicing opposition to he Health and Social Care Bill, Which is currently working its way through Parliament and poses a huge threat to our NHS. The government is in effect trying to sneak through privatisation under the guise of 'reform'.
Coventry Socialist Party Councillor Dave Nellist voted to support the motion. While Dave was clear he supported the ruling Labour groups opposition to the bill, he pointed out that questions needed to be asked as to why so much privatisation had already occurred in the NHS under the last Labour government in the guise of PFI as one example. Dave also pointed out that the planned £15-£20 billion worth of cuts to the NHS was first announced in June 2009 as the Labour governments planned cuts to the NHS.
Here is a link to a recorded webcast of the full council meeting - http://www.coventry.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/71454
Here we have reproduced Dave’s intervention in the debate.
‘It’s clear the health and social care bill would fundamentally change the function and role of the NHS. A major post war gain for ordinary working people. One of its key changes is that it takes away a duty that has existed since 1946 - a duty of care on the government to provide a health service will no longer be a legal obligation to do so, if this bill is enacted.
And that in my view will lead to the replacement of what we’ve all grown up with, and everyone’s given experiences of the comprehensive and universal nature of the NHS system to a more of a United States type of health market
…..BUT……
Its only been possible because of the changes in the 13 years before that which introduced the beginnings of marketisation on which this bill develops.
One union leader, memorably phrased it - ‘The Tories are marching over the bridge that Labour first built’
This bill is wrong; it will add more cherry picking by private companies. It will allow more services to be charged with more top up fees, it will give more legal powers to private companies to challenge when they don’t win contracts – its all about business and its been welcomed by business.
Only few days ago, a major supplement in the Birmingham post on the business of healthcare. It begins with ‘the tougher the market is to crack, the greater the reward.’
And then goes on in 12 pages to explain how companies intend to make profits out of the NHS.
But there only able to do that because there taking advantage of PFI, of personal care budgets, of the various privatisation of community care, of the outsourcing of support functions and essential of the split of delivery of healthcare in this country into providers and into purchasers. The very first market mechanism that was brought in.
Now this bill will make it worse, and I will be voting for the motion. But I think we have to recognise that it’s only making it worse because of the distance that has already been travelled.
And its absolutely right that part of the announcements over Christmas of the government expecting now up to 49% of beds in hospitals to be provided privately or Mike Farrar from the head of the NHS confederation talking about up to 3 million patients in Britain being treated at home by an overstretched community health service is part of this 15-20 billion pounds of cuts which the government is competing
Which David (Welsh, Labour Cllr) ought to admit was first announced by David Nicholson in June 2009 as the cuts target of the Labour government from 2011 - 2014.
It wasn’t just invented by the Tories.
So I will be voting for the motion because the government should be forced to drop this bill but we need to have a wider debate about how business methods and marketisation has come to dominate what was for working people in the post war period the pre-eminent gain of the 1945 Labour government.
Now that’s something the old Labour Party and perhaps some of the older Labour Party members across the chamber would have welcomed not so long ago but after the leader of the opposition and the shadow chancellors antics this last weekend about adopting Tory policies ‘wholesale’ they I don’t think would fight it in the same way some people in here might.’
Here is a llink to a recent article from the Socialist Party on the ConDems savage attacks on the NHS - http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/campaign/NHS/13395
Coventry Socialist Party and Cllr Dave Nellist will continue to:
Say No to cuts. For a publicly funded health service, free at the point of use, to provide for everyone's needs.
Fight to kick PFI out Walsgrave and Coventry.
Campaign for free car parking and free bus travel to and from the hospital, stopping any ‘tax’ on the sick.
