Please act now to help save the NHS
ASLEF believes the Government should drop the Health and Social Care Bill which seeks to privatise the NHS.
If you share these concerns please follow this link and add your name to the petition which calls on the Government to drop the Bill.
The union opposed the government’s White Paper last year which has now become the Health and Social Care Bill. ASLEF is pleased that the support in opposing the Bill has increased and recently many of the Royal Colleges including the Royal College of GP's, Royal College of Midwives and Royal College of Nursing have also publicly opposed the Health Bill.
We all know someone who either works in the NHS or uses the NHS. Use your voice to raise your concerns on the Health Bill.
A 'Save our NHS' rally is being organised for the 7th March 2012 at Central Hall Westminster, London. Come and join the opposition. If you are not able to attend the rally use the template letter below to write to your local MP asking them to oppose the Health and Social Care Bill.
Dear MP
Health and Social Care Bill
I am writing to you as an individual who values the National Health Service and am extremely concerned about the Government’s Health and Social Care Bill.
I appreciate that the government’s listening exercise was designed to address problems with the original legislation. Unfortunately, for the following reasons, I do not believe that these changes are sufficient to stop the NHS being broken up and undermined.
The regulator Monitor’s responsibility for “promoting competition” may have been removed from the Bill, but repeated references to “preventing anti-competitive behaviour” have been added – this sounds like the same thing to me. The NHS should not be treated in the same way as the utilities or rail industry; it is based on care and compassion, with different parts of the system required to work together, not compete against one another.
The government has failed to reinstate full responsibility for the NHS to the Secretary of State, who will not be responsible for securing services directly, but through bodies such as the NHS Commissioning Board. There is no duty to provide a comprehensive service on the new commissioning groups that will become the key components of the new system. There is also nothing to stop new commissioning groups from outsourcing vital responsibilities to unaccountable private companies, who are obliged to place the interests of shareholders above all else.
In addition, hospitals will in future be able to make as much money from private patient income as they want because the existing cap is being abolished. This means that some hospitals will prioritise those that pay for their care over NHS patients. I think it is unfair that some patients will be able to jump the queue simply because they have the money. This goes against the very nature of our NHS, where care is supposed to be based on need, not the ability to pay.
Finally, I am concerned about the impact on NHS staff. The huge instability caused by the Bill means that the NHS is losing talented staff members it has invested in. There will be considerable job losses across the bodies that are being abolished and far greater instability for those working in other NHS organisations.
I believe that improvements to the NHS, such as increasing clinical involvement and providing a greater say for patients, can be done without time-consuming legislation. I want to see the money I pay in tax spent on improving patient care, not wasted on what is already a massively expensive reorganisation.
As an NHS user I am asking that you please vote for Our NHS and its future and do all you can to stop and amend this damaging piece of legislation that could break up our NHS for good.
Yours sincerely,
XXXXX
