The ConDem government’s plans for our NHS are a serious threat. Local health services would be broken up, and private companies brought in. The Health and Social Care Bill is deeply unpopular.
The main group representing doctors, the British Medical Association, said the plans were “dangerous” and called on the government to withdraw them. [1] Doctors taking part in the debate in London voted in favour of calling on Mr Lansley to withdraw the Bill entirely and for a “halt to the proposed top-down reorganisation of the NHS.”
BMA chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum received a standing ovation after he said the Bill contained the same basic ideology – of competition and choice – that Labour had thought would reform public services.
But he argued that Mr Lansley’s plan goes “much further, much faster, with no heed to the massive risks it brings to all that is good about one of the best health systems in the world.”
Last weekend even Lib Dem party members voted to tell Nick Clegg the government’s plans are “damaging and unjustified”. [2]
Sooner or later, we all rely on our NHS. It’s not perfect, but it is worth protecting. Doctors, health experts and charities are all saying our NHS is in grave danger.[3] Third Way agrees.
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