Almost perfectly timed to follow on the tail of the latest round of Junior Doctors Strikes, Caroline Lucas' backbench National Health Service Bill has its second reading in the Commons today (Friday 11th).
The aim of the bill is to rein in, what has been called, the undemocratic backdoor privatisation of the NHS. The bill seeks to undo internal competition introduced in 1991 and reintroduce local health boards, to streamline the identification of the services needed and to provide them (Lucas, 2016).
Public backing for the NHS remains high, and the bill has received broad support from celebrities and other publicly notable persons (The Guardian, 2016). The good feeling towards the institution can be seen in the still high support for the junior doctors in the ongoing contract dispute between the British Medical Association, the BMA, and Secretary of Health Jeremy Hunt (ITV, 2016; Stone, 2016).
The junior doctors strikes themselves seem almost to be symptomatic of the problems to be found in the NHS' inner workings. Staff have been stretched thin across shifts for years (The Telegraph, 2012).
After a number of strikes, negotiations completely broke down, with Jeremy Hunt attempting to suggest that the doctor's union, the BMA, was trying to hold the government to ransom (Ashmore, 2016). Treating unionised medical professionals like they're mutineers at least doesn't seem to have helped Hunt's standing with the public.
Yet the decision by the Health Secretary to impose the government's newly designed contracts (Tran & Campbell, 2016), without further negotiation or bilateral acceptance, was a potentially damaging but possibly effective escalation of the dispute - effectively calling out doctors in the expectation of grumbling compliance.
For doctors are left with little alternative, besides interminable strikes, than flight - literally abroad, or figuratively, to the private sector. With the NHS in crisis in recent years, this has already been increasingly the case (El Sheika, 2016; Johnson, 2016).
Yet it has also been suggested that Hunt, and others who are actually in favour of a privatised system of healthcare, are unlikely to shed a tear for staff flying to the private sector (Stone, 2016). In fact there are some who see these events as part of a long chain, a long and concerted effort to discredit the NHS in order to pave the way for privatisation (El Gingihy, 2015).
Supporters of the NHS Bill, which is being debated and voted on in parliament today, see the privatisation agenda as both undemocratic and also contrary to the facts. Accusations have been made that the costs of healthcare are being inflated, in all parts of the NHS, by the infiltration of the private sector (Furse, 2016) - completely contrary to the standard narrative of market 'efficiency'.
Caroline Lucas', who is sponsoring the bill, has argued that the virtual army of staff required to manage private contracts is contributing heavily to the growing deficit and debt hanging around the NHS' neck (Lucas, 2016{2}). In fact, it has been pointed to that by the WHO, World Health Organisation, definition, the NHS is all but privatised already (El Gingihy, 2016).
The backbench NHS Bill is an attempt to reverse that direction and keep the institution alive and restore it for the future. The NHS remains an important part of the public safety net that guards against disaster. Alongside future progressive, like the basic income and a shortening of the working day, a free-at-the-point-of-use public healthcare system still has a place in ensuring justice and liberty.
References
Caroline Lucas' 'This week, MPs could vote for a Bill that would stop the dismantling of our NHS - if they actually want to: It was backed by Jeremy Corbyn before he became leader, and even celebrities such as Cara Delevingne have lent their support. But translating this public will into politics could be difficult'; in The Independent; 10 March 2016.
'Why we support the cross-party NHS bill'; in The Guardian, by around 300 celebrities, doctors and academics; 4 March 2016.
'Poll suggests majority of public support junior doctors'; from ITV News; 9 March 2016.
Jon Stone's 'Public overwhelmingly blame Jeremy Hunt for junior doctors' strike, poll finds: Support for the strike also remains strong'; in The Independent; 10 February 2016.
'Nurses stretched to 'breaking point' as 60,000 frontline health service posts under threat, says RCN: Overworked nurses are being stretched to "breaking point" amid spending cuts that have placed more than 60,000 frontline jobs in the NHS at risk, it was claimed today'; in The Telegraph; 14 May 2012.
John Ashmore's 'Jeremy Hunt: I imposed doctors' contract to show Government can’t be held to ransom - Jeremy Hunt has said he chose to impose a controversial new contract onto junior doctors to show the Government cannot be “held to ransom”'; on Politics Home; 4 March 2016.
Mark Tran & Denis Campbell's 'Jeremy Hunt to announce that he will force new contract on junior doctors: Health secretary to make Commons statement as thousands of doctors return to work after second 24-hour strike'; in The Guardian; 11 February 2016.
Sarah El Sheika's 'Remember 11th February 2016. It's the day Jeremy Hunt tried to kill the NHS: We joke about Mr Hunt having shares in Australian emigration, but really this is no laughing matter. Record amounts are leaving the country - or the medical profession altogether'; in The Independent; 11 February 2016.
Sarah Johnson's 'Four in five NHS staff thought about leaving - Exclusive: Healthcare staff in Guardian survey say increasing workloads, unreasonable expectations, cuts and long hours are damaging their lives'; in The Guardian; 12 February 2016.
Jon Stone's 'Jeremy Hunt co-authored book calling for NHS to be replaced with private insurance - 'Direct Democracy: An Agenda For A New Model Party' called for the 'denationalisation' of the NHS'; in The Independent; 10 February 2016{2}.
Youssef El Gingihy's 'How the NHS is being dismantled in 10 easy steps: You might feel like nothing has changed in the national health service - but actually, the government have legally abolished it and are working to make that abolition a reality'; in The Independent; 27 August 2015.
John Furse's 'Our NHS can't afford privatisation - why MPs must back the NHS Bill this Friday: Even middle England can see that privatisation costs, rather than saves, billions. Will MPs take a historic chance to undo this market mess that's crippling our NHS, this Friday?'; on Open Democracy; 7 March 2016.
Youssef El Gingihy's 'Terrifyingly, according to the World Health Organisation definition the UK no longer has a NHS: The NHS Reinstatement Bill may be the final hope we have of getting our NHS back'; in The Independent; 11 March 2016.
No comments:
Post a Comment