Keep Our NHS Public

MPs hear evidence during debate on NHS privatisation in Parliament

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/mps-hear-evidence-during-debate-nhs-privatisation-parliament

 A general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward

MPs have demanded that Health Secretary Wes Streeting “listen to experts” who warned against implementing his “disastrous” plans to further privatise the NHS.

At a debate chaired by Labour MP Richard Burgon in Westminster on Tuesday, MPs heard new expert evidence exposing that levels of privatisation within the health service were far higher than previously thought.

Mr Burgon said: “We need to push back against this Mandelsonian wing of the Labour party. I want Wes to hear what is being shared in this room.

“Privatisation is disastrous for patients and for workers. It’s not the way forward.”

The meeting with the NHS working group coincided with the publication of a report co-authored by campaigners Keep Our NHS Public and the 99% Organisation.

It found the level of private involvement in the NHS to be about 30 per cent, rather than the more widely known figure of 7 per cent.

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MPs including Rachel Maskell, Andy McDonald, Neil Duncan-Jordan heard testimonies on the “disastrous” state of privatisation in the NHS from health experts, NHS staff and economists.

Report co-author Mark E Thomas said: “The figure which is most referred to in this debate was 7 per cent of privatisation. But really we need to be thinking 30 per cent.”

He added: “In some specialties, more than 50 per cent of treatments are already paid for privately, such as ophthalmology for example. It’s the same for dentistry.”

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Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/mps-hear-evidence-during-debate-nhs-privatisation-parliament

Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Nigel Farage attacks the NHS
Nigel Farage attacks the NHS
Image of George Osborne asking where is the money to be made in the NHS
Image of George Osborne asking where is the money to be made in the NHS

Continue ReadingMPs hear evidence during debate on NHS privatisation in Parliament

Streeting warned ‘irresponsible’ public tirades won’t avert plans for doctor strikes

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/streeting-warned-irresponsible-public-tirades-wont-avert-plans-doctor-strikes

 Junior doctors and members of the British Medical Association (BMA) outside Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, January 3, 2024

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NHS campaigners issued a furious response after he told LBC: “I cannot guarantee, I honestly don’t want to catastrophise or sensationalise, I cannot sit here and look you in the eye and tell you that no patient will come to harm.”

BMA resident doctors’ committee chair Dr Jack Fletcher said: “Ultimately, the health secretary has far more power to prevent NHS strikes than he gives himself credit for; not through confrontation, but by rebuilding trust and putting an offer on the table that creates sufficient brand-new training places for doctors, not changing the names of existing roles. 

“His current offer does not create any more capacity for us to treat patients, or do anything to help clear waiting lists; let’s be clear about that.”

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Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr Tony O’Sullivan told the Morning Star: “It is the height of irresponsible behaviour from the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, to go to war with doctors and the BMA amid the flu epidemic and this, the second winter crisis since the Starmer–Streeting administration took office. 

“The government cannot pretend that they had no warning, that they didn’t see it coming. Nor should they deny that it is their responsibility to deal with it. 

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“The government must take action to give NHS resident doctors, and other staff, the remuneration they deserve.

“But instead, as with the scapegoating of migrants and asylum-seekers as the cause of multiple ills, the government’s self-serving reaction is to scapegoat doctors and their union, the BMA, for the NHS crisis Labour was voted into office to solve.”

Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/streeting-warned-irresponsible-public-tirades-wont-avert-plans-doctor-strikes

Continue ReadingStreeting warned ‘irresponsible’ public tirades won’t avert plans for doctor strikes

London hospital advertises for ‘corridor care’ nurses

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/london-hospital-advertises-for-corridor-care-nurses

The emergency department at Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, Smethwick, January 8, 2025

Royal College of Emergency Medicine says advertisement is ‘normalising’ patients being treated in the corridors

A LONDON hospital has advertising for “corridor care” nurses because so many A&E patients are being cared for while waiting for beds or treatment.

The 12-hour shifts were advertised by Whittington hospital in north London.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) said the advertisement indicated the “normalising” of patients being treated in the corridors of hospital A&E departments.

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Retired paediatrician Dr John Puntis, co-chair of campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, said: “There can be no bleaker illustration of the current state of the NHS than ‘care’ delivered in corridors.

“Winter pressures on an already overstretched service were entirely predictable.

“Six months in power and Labour has done nothing pro-active to alleviate this situation.”

He accused the government of instead “throwing money at the private sector.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/london-hospital-advertises-for-corridor-care-nurses

Continue ReadingLondon hospital advertises for ‘corridor care’ nurses

Labour’s plans to sell GP data to private sector ‘make no sense’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-plans-to-sell-gp-data-to-private-sector-make-no-sense

Health Secretary Wes Streeting meeting staff during a visit to London Ambulance Service headquarters in south London, December 9, 2024

Campaigners warn Labour’s ‘pro-business approach to data’ has ‘potential for further loss of public trust’ in the NHS

HEALTH Secretary Wes Streeting’s plans to sell GP data to the private sector “make no sense,” warned experts raising fresh privacy concerns yesterday.

Campaigners also warned Labour’s “pro-business approach to data” had the potential for further loss of public trust in the health service.

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Mr Streeting in October said that data “is the future of the NHS” and Britain “could lead the world in medical research.”

He plans to create a “single access system” for information from GP surgeries, hospitals and other care settings after NHS England awarded a controversial £330 million contract to US spy tech giant Palantir in 2023 to develop a new platform.

Today Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr John Puntis said: “The Data Use and Access Bill currently going through Parliament illustrates Labour’s pro-business approach to data as a valuable resource, and highlights the potential for further loss of public trust.

“It aims to make data, including our personal heath data, widely available to public authorities and the private sector.

“The Secretary of State will be given power to erode safeguards over use of personal data for research.

“Labour intends to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses at the expense of safeguards for citizens.

“An alternative vision would include investment in a publicly owned national digital infrastructure aimed at storing and managing NHS data currently being processed through cloud computing services that are owned by large technology companies.

“There must be safeguards against the private sector gaining access to data for profit, and the public should be fully informed about the use of people’s health data and the right to protection and privacy.”

A spokesman for Momentum said: “Selling off patients’ data is no way to fix the NHS.

“We must fully renationalise our healthcare system and defend it from corporate interests, not welcome them.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-plans-to-sell-gp-data-to-private-sector-make-no-sense

Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
Continue ReadingLabour’s plans to sell GP data to private sector ‘make no sense’

‘Heartbreaking’: Shocking decline in public satisfaction with NHS under Tories

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/heartbreaking-shocking-decline-in-public-satisfaction-with-nhs-under-tories/

‘The NHS isn’t failing, it’s being failed. What an appalling act of state vandalism’

Public satisfaction with the NHS is at its lowest ever level, plunging for the first time in the 41-year history of the survey to show less than a quarter of people are satisfied with the way the health service is currently running. 

Compared to 2010 when 70% of the public were satisfied with the NHS, the latest survey findings lay bare what 14 years of a Tory government stripping funds and resources from the NHS has had. 

Campaign group Keep Our NHS Public has called it “an appalling act of state vandalism” commenting that the NHS “isn’t failing, it’s being failed”. 

NHS workers have expressed heartbreak over the shocking decline in public satisfaction for the service under the Tories while unions have called for immediate action to address the staffing crisis.

One palliative care doctor wrote on X: “14 years of Tory government understaffing, underfunding & private sector outsourcing have trashed the NHS into a travesty of the service we want to give you.

“It is heartbreaking and so disgustingly wrong.”

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/heartbreaking-shocking-decline-in-public-satisfaction-with-nhs-under-tories/

Continue Reading‘Heartbreaking’: Shocking decline in public satisfaction with NHS under Tories