Even Tebbit Is Against Tory Privatisation Of The NHS
Labour leader Ed Miliband in a letter to David Cameron: “The conduct of your Government and its approach towards changes which will have dramatic repercussions for thousands of hard-working people in our NHS, not to mention millions of patients who rely on it, shows an incredible arrogance, bordering on contempt.”
It seems that no one who has ever had to use the NHS is in favour of the Con-dem(ned) government plans to privatise it. Now even Norman Tebbit, Thatchers hatchet man from the '80s has launched a superb attack on the Government’s health reforms.
In an amazing article in today's Daily Mirrow, Tebbit is quoted as saying that Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans could bring “unfair” competition, enabling private firms to cherry pick.
He said: “It’s fine for the private sector, which doesn’t have responsibility for teaching and bringing on young surgeons, to take the straightforward and easy stuff.
“But that means the public sector is then left without the base of work to subsidise the more difficult surgery and the teaching of surgeons.”
The article then goes on to remind its readers that:
Lord Tebbit, whose wife Margaret was left in a wheelchair after the IRA Brighton bomb attack in 1984, spoke of his experience as chairman of a charitable fund which helped the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust. He told how a local private hospital was contracted by the NHS to help shorten waiting lists.
“But the damage it did to the finances of Nuffield and its ability to carry out training...was quite considerable,” he said. “The private sector hospital had neither any obligation, nor wish, to take on the more difficult and complex surgery. It had no obligation to teach the next generation of surgeons the skills they would need to deal with such work."
That said, no one is under any illusions that even Tebbits comments mean he is against the introduction of some form of competition and changes to having national hospitals run by a central body such as the NHS.
Read the full article by clicking on the pic above.
Source: Daily Mirror