White Paper Team,
Room 601,
Department of Health,
79 Whitehall,
London
SW1A 2NS
nhswhitepaper@dh.gsi.gov.uk
Deadline 5th October 2010
RESPONSE TO NHS WHITE PAPER
This organisation (Print)……………................................................................ maintains that the proposed White Paper would have a seriously detrimental impact upon the services, values and founding principles of our National Health Service.
These proposals have little support from NHS staff or patients, and lack an electoral mandate: not one of them was put to voters in May.
The drive to hand over large parts of the NHS to the private sector is driven by ideology, not by evidence. Bitter experience shows privatisation (such as hospital cleaning, and computerisation) costs more or undermines quality.
The scrapping of 150 Primary Care Trusts and replacing them with GP commissioning bodies would (a) be more expensive (b) fragment services (c) open up a new “postcode lottery” of inequalities, (d) fail to safeguard vulnerable patients (e) bring more privatisation and (f ) lead to GPs rationing care.
The abolition of PCTs and SHAs would result in all future decisions being taken without the scrutiny or influence of local councillors or the public. The public has a right to influence the NHS and not just to become a consumer.
Foundation Trusts would be encouraged to focus more of their resources on attracting wealthy private patients from home and abroad, with services for NHS patients squeezed by £20 billion in cuts.
Please ensure our organisation’s response to the NHS White Paper is registered.
OUR NHS - OUR FUTURE (hat-tip UNISONactive)
