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Emma Thompson
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NHS ‘being parcelled up and privatised bit by bit’
Campaigner warns that change is going ahead ‘under the radar’
ACTRESS Emma Thompson and former Labour MP Tony Benn added their voices this week to a major campaign against “patchwork” privatisation of the NHS.
Ms Thompson has signed a letter expressing her fears that market-based schemes are being pushed through with the minimum of debate.
Other signatories include Helena Kennedy QC, agony aunt Claire Rayner and Keep the NHS Public co-founder Professor Wendy Savage, who lives in Islington.
Ms Thompson writes: “These untested rapid changes – the most extensive since the service was founded – threaten the values that bind the NHS together.”
At the same time, Mr Benn, a former Labour minister, told a packed conference at Friends Meeting House in Euston on Saturday that soon only the very wealthy will be able to afford health care.
He said: “The NHS came about because of the power people exercised at the ballot box. They brought health care with their votes instead of with their wallets, but now with NHS privatisation it’s going the other way. Soon only people with money will be able to afford the best health care.”
He added that, instead of “spending all this money on Iraq”, cash should be spent on the NHS.
The 300-strong audience heard that the private company which took over Islington’s care homes and then halved workers’ salaries is about to run a hospital at Lymington in the New Forest.
Professor Savage said that this was the first time an entire hospital has been privatised.
She added: “Care UK will be taking over the running of the Lymington this summer. Their first actions when taking over Islington care homes was to reduce the wages of staff. Profits should not be made out of health and social care.”
She added that, unlike the Thatcher privatisations of the 1980s, this time the whole NHS is not being put up for auction.
Professor Savage said: “Instead, it is being parcelled up into bite-sized pieces, and handed over to private control bit by bit. This is happening on such a scale and at such a pace as to make it a unique phenomenon.
“The government’s greatest achievement has been to push through the biggest change in the history of the NHS – under the radar and without a public mandate. It’s time for an open debate about whether people want the patchwork privatisation of their health service.”
Kentish Town consultant Dr Jacky Davis told the conference that the government has squandered the goodwill of health workers. She said: “The frontline workers who have always put patients first will be struggling with the consequences of these reforms long after the architects retire to write their memoirs.”
According to calculations made by the Keep Our NHS Public campaign, the private sector will pocket at least £23 billion of NHS money in profits and interest over 30 years through the private finance initiative hospital building scheme.
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