Cameron's 'unpopular' NHS reforms are deeply flawed, says Unite
17 January 2011
The Prime Minister’s PR rhetoric on NHS reform can’t disguise
the flaws with the proposals and its unpopularity with the public,
Unite, the largest union in the country, said today (Monday, 17
January).
Unite, which has 100,000 members in the health service, said
that the proposals to reform the NHS - due to be unveiled in the
Health and Social Care Bill on Wednesday - were politically,
economically and professionally flawed.
Unite was commenting as David Cameron was due to give a
well-trailed speech on public reform today, and following a letter
in The Times today from Unite and other health care
organisations warning that the effects of the reforms were
‘potentially disastrous.’
Unite’s National Officer for Health, Karen Reay said: ‘The
much-vaunted reforms of Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley are deeply
flawed on a number of counts.’
‘Politically, these plans were never voted on by the electorate
in May, when the Tories promised there would be no major
reorganisation of the NHS. Now they are intending to introduce a
bill to Parliament that is five times greater than any previous NHS
bill put before MPs.’
‘This is just a continuation of the Maoist revolution that Vince
Cable warned about before Christmas. Unnecessarily tampering with
the NHS is extremely unpopular with the public – all the PM’s PR
spin can’t disguise this fact.’
‘Economically, the reforms of the NHS will cost about £3bn to
implement - creating new unwanted bureaucracies with money that
should be directed to patient care. The only people to benefit will
be the private healthcare companies which will gobble up lucrative
NHS contracts.’
‘Professionally, all this turmoil will hit patient care as the
NHS becomes fragmented under the weight of private sector
involvement and the coalition’s so-called £20bn of efficiency
savings start to take their toil. There is clear evidence from
research by economists at Imperial College that price competition
in healthcare is damaging.’
‘There is a danger that these plans will be as incoherent as the
Big Society, but far more risky for the public's health. And
however much the PM protests this is not all about ideology - there
is nowhere in the world where health outcomes improve when the
service is marketised. The sole reason they are dissecting the
service is to pave the way for private provision.’
In the letter to
The Times, Unite and five other health organisations,
said: ‘Furthermore the sheer scale of the ambitious and costly
reform programme, and the pace of change, whilst at the same time
being tasked with making £20 billion of savings, is extremely risky
and potentially disastrous.’
-ends-
Note to news editors:
For further information, please contact, Karen Reay on 07798
531004 and/or Shaun Noble, Unite’s communications officer on 07768
693940
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