The NHS is once again teetering on the brink of collapse because of underfunding and understaffing and is likely to eclipse last year’s record winter crisis.
The Tories. even this chaotic government, know that winter comes around once a year, but have again failed to take any of the needed steps to prevent it – Jeremy Hunt instead prefers to repeat lies and attempt cockiness on social media with people who know better than him.
NHS campaigners have long asserted that this is because collapse is the plan – a plan made before the Tories were even in power – in order to prepare the NHS for further break-up and privatisation – with the ultimate goal of reducing us to the horror of a US-style healthcare system. And it seems the Tories are moving to the next phase – the endgame? – of their plan with the imposition of a massive stealth-reorganisation.
The government and NHS England are restructuring the NHS into ‘Accountable Care Organisations’ (ACOs), although they are named differently in different parts of the country.
This is, after all, a stealth-reorganisation, with every effort being made to keep it out of the public consciousness.
ACOs will permit companies to run health and social services across a whole area – either providing the services themselves or sub-contract them. This gives ACOs control over the allocation of NHS and taxpayers’ money – but their accountability to the public will be under commercial contracts, not government statutes.
And not even subject to Freedom of Information requests – making what will pass for, but no longer really be, our NHS opaque, unaccountable and even more cost-driven than the Tories have already made it.
In a last-ditch attempt to block this catastrophic give-away, four leading health campaigners are taking the NHS to court.
Dr Colin Hutchinson, Professor Allyson Pollock, Professor Sue Richards and Dr Graham Winyard are working together to seek a judicial review of the inadequate consultation and openness of the government’s further ‘under the radar’ break-up of the NHS into snack-sized parcels.
Professor Pollock told the Independent:
The government has not only failed to consult the people of England about its plans but it has failed to lay its proposals before Parliament. In so doing, it is acting beneath the statutory radar in attempting the Americanisation of our health care and this fundamental re-organisation by stealth.
We call on everyone to support this legal action against the Secretary of State for health to ensure proper national public consultation and full parliamentary oversight and scrutiny,
The Dept of Health has, of course, denied what it is clearly doing – this is, after all, a stealth-reorganisation.
But everyone who values the NHS and the health of our people needs to answer Prof Pollock’s call and support the legal action – as well as raising awareness so that the government’s ‘stealth’ objective fails miserable and this assault on the NHS is seen for what it is.
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The Tories are dead in the water and they know it. This is the last chance they will have to turn our NHS into a private healthcare insurance system and they are going to go for it by hook or by crook.
This is a hill worth dying for.
Where’s the link to sign or donate?
Now added into the article – search for ‘support’
Reblogged this on sdbast.
No lawyer myself so a question… I’d guess the making of such plans could give potential investors grounds to sue (a future administration which cancels this sneak privatisation) for the cost of preparing their bids based on plans of the present administration?
Anyone else think that would be attractive to Hunt just for the pure spite of it – even if he & his friends didn’t personally profit from it?
Kidding 🙂
Just to let folks know donate link suspended at present due to massive overwhelming public response the target amount has been reached FOR NOW.
More donations will be needed later .
Well done again SB for the alert pse keep us posted
Brilliant response from people who care about our NHS
Fxxk you HUNT !!
Previous generations of Tories who’d pissed away the inheritance & sold the family silver – or committed some act of cowardice risking mutiny in the ranks – or been found out in corruption beyond the acceptable – at least had the grace to blow their brains out for the honour of the tribe.
Just saying.
Hey Skwarkbox, Namaste 🙂
This is very encouraging news: at last those who have influence but no political affiliation are making a stand on behalf of all the people in the UK, and it is our duty to applaud them and support them to the very end. The NHS is a lifeline paid for by the UK taxpayer…it is not an entity to be run as a business making vast profits for American Insurance Companies whilst thousands in the UK suffer additional hardship just to ensure longevity in their lives. If four people can come together to hunt the Hunt and take him down, then surely to goodness there are others with influence who could do the same and hunt other Tories down with a view to prosecution: and that includes the PM who should ultimately take the entire rap for demonstrating gross incompetence and wilful mismanagement of the UK to the point where thousands are suffering and services to the electorate diminished to rubble. I see nothing wrong in promoting the idea of crowd-funding to finance legal action against this despicable government, and against individuals within it. By extension I would also include senior officials within all other government departments as well, they are equally as responsible for having done nothing to better the lives of millions. No politician regardless of who they might think they are should be above the law that governs this land.
After the fab-four have won the case against Hunt, it would be prudent to restructure the NHS and to do so by removing a very high percentage of superfluous managers, administrators and IT systems whose costs would be far better spent medically treating the public. There is no justification whatsoever for a hospital manger to earn more than the PM. It is the same with Councillors on City Councils…many hold superfluous and redundant jobs and restrict resource for community projects.
And on a last note…congratulations prince harry on getting engaged. It’s just a shame that no-one actually gives a damn what you do with your life. It certainly wasn’t fantastical enough news to overshadow the real issues of life: issues that the royal family don’t have to concern themselves with either: like contemplating suicide when benefits are not paid, restricted, or paid late because of the cataclysmic failure of Social Security reforms. Perhaps when the the fab-four have finished masticating on Hunt they’ll have room for enough for a side order of Gauke served with some fava beans and a nice chianti.
Red Love and Peace. Namaste 🙂
DN
Reblogged this on Opher's World and commented:
This is disgusting. The Tories continue their process of destroying public services so that they can sell education and the NHS off to their rich chums. As the Academies grow and private companies move in like vulture. We’ve already had farcical privatisation of Forensics. Why would we want rich people making money out of our health and the education of our children?
This is disgusting. The Tories continue their process of destroying public services so that they can sell education and the NHS off to their rich chums. As the Academies grow and private companies move in like vulture. We’ve already had farcical privatisation of Forensics. Why would we want rich people making money out of our health and the education of our children?
Thanks Rob! That’s great news!
I’m glad to see such support for this action.
However, in my opinion Hunt is providing cover and acting as a political punch bag as changes to full collapse and privatisation continue at rapid pace under direction of Simon Stevens. It is NHS England that is targeted, the wealthiest part of the union..
Ross Ashcroft talks to Dr Bob Gill and Dr Sarah Gangoli
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZL3Wt17w8g
The MSM and especially the so called public service providers BBC and Channel 4 have not done their job over decades of neoliberal ‘centrist’ dogma and Labour and Lib Dem MPs still wedded to neoliberal ideology need to search their consciences, if they have any, and get on board and active in saving our NHS..
Make no mistake Tories and their supporters in the MSM aim to ensure Tories stay in power as long as is needed to fulfil the greatest prizes such as full privatisation of NHS and asset stripping of public land and wealth..
From my own expeience I can argue that the private sector health is in as bad a state as the NHS regarding handling the older generation – private health overwhelmed by the number, severity and complexity of health care needs just as NHS is – where is all the money going??
Why there is not a national outcry I don’t know – britain sleeps whilst treeza may has more secret courts and hidden agendas – this is treason surely?
“where is all the money going??”
Private profits, CEO bonuses, legal and lobbying teams, bureaucratic structures enforcing the ruthless corporate model, shareholders and tax havens?
Ron: You ask why there has been no national outcry, and the answer is simply that the vast majority of people don’t know what the Tories and the Establishment are doing, and the reason they don’t know is because it is deliberately being kept from them by the MSM – ie the right-wing corporate press and TV broadcasters. The NHS is in the process of being stolen from right under our noses, and yet the vast majority of people don’t heve a clue that it’s happening, and that says all you need to know about the power the Establishment has.
There are numerous examples of deliberate ommision by the MSM, but here is one from last April. You would have thought that it would be relatively big news if Andy Murray and Will Young and a bunch of other celebrities – along with many of the largest environmental groups in the country – had all signed a letter to Theresa May urging her not to scale back on commitments to tackle climate change etc in order to secure post-Brexit trade deals, but it was more-or-less completely blanked out by the MSM, apart from The Guardian (and a few small websites), and for the obvious reason:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/16/theresa-may-urged-to-honour-climate-and-wildlife-commitments
http://www.sify.com/news/murray-joins-plea-to-british-pm-over-climate-change-promises-news-others-reqvucagjjcgj.html