We are
campaigning for a clear commitment from the Labour Party to saving the National
Health Service.
We
want to stop and reverse privatisation, and rebuild the NHS as a comprehensive
public service providing for all on the basis of need – not a logo above a
marketplace of profit-making companies.
We
welcome Labour’s pledge to repeal the Health and Social Care Act and its key
“competition regulations” promoting marketisation – and to restore the
ministerial duty to provide national health services. We also welcome Andy
Burnham’s commitment that the NHS must be protected from international “free
trade” agreements.
But to
rebuild the NHS we need more. We need a major drive to undo the damage done by
the Act, and before that by years of policies shifting the NHS towards a market
system, like the obscenely wasteful “internal market”, widespread privatisation
and outsourcing, and fragmentation into competing units. We want a fight to
bring contracts already in the hands of private companies back into the NHS. We
want an end to the Private Finance Initiative and liberation from crushing PFI
debts. We want an end to cash-driven closures, reversal of cuts and adequate
funding to rebuild the NHS as a genuine public service.
Such
policies are necessary to restore a comprehensive NHS providing a top quality
health service for all, as well as decent terms and conditions for its workers.
We support a Living Wage and a mandatory minimum staffing ratio of one nurse to
every four patients.
We
want reversal of the Coalition’s attacks on migrants’ access to the NHS. We
want integration of health and social care to mean that social care becomes a
public service.
We are
supporting the lobby of Labour Party conference on 21 September, and want to
build an ongoing alliance of NHS campaigners, Labour Party activists and trade
unions/trade unionists to fight for these goals.
Want to add your name to this statement? Please add your or your organisation’s name by adding in the comments below or by emailing [email protected], and circulate widely. Regular updates to the list of signatories are here.
Already signed by organisations and individuals including:
People’s
March for the NHS
999
call for the NHS (Darlo mums)
Wendy
Savage, Keep Our NHS Public President
Kate
Osamor, NHS Worker, Unite activist and Labour Party national executive-elect
Dr Louise
Irvine, Chair of Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign
Colin Standfield, on behalf of Ealing Hospital SOS
Hackney
Keep Our NHS Public
Leeds
Keep Our NHS Public
Dr David Wrigley, GP Carnforth in Lancashire, British Medical Association Council
Anita
Downs, nurse and Unite the Union secretary at Lewisham Hospital, SLH steering
committee
Jill
Mountford, SLH steering committee
John
McDonnell MP
Dr
Jacky Davis, NHS Consultants’ Association co-chair
Ron
Singer, Medical Practioners Union (Unite) chair
Carol Ackroyd, Hackney KONP
Caroline Molloy, OurNHS openDemocracy editor
Pete Radcliff, Broxtowe Constituency Labour Party secretary
Pat Smith, Hull North CLP secretary
Pete
Campbell, junior doctor, Newcastle
Doreen
Illingworth, Leeds North West CLP
Chris
Marks, PCS union North West Regional Organiser
Marsha
Jane Thompson, Havering Unison secretary and LRC Vice Chair
Pia
Feig, Trafford KONP and Unison Manchester Community and Mental Health
Barbara
Iqbal, Trafford KONP and Unison
Sarah
Barratt, Trafford KONP
Nik
Barstow, Trafford KONP, Unite and Stretford and Urmston CLP
Tom
Barstow, Trafford KONP, PCS and Stretford and Urmston CLP
Maggie
Barker, Trafford KONP and Unison Salford University Branch
Ron
Mendel, Northampton Reclaim Our NHS chair and Northampton Trades Council
President
Professor
Alwyn Smith
Omar
Raii, University College London Union External Affairs and Campaigns Officer
Professor
Robert Moore, Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, The
University of Liverpool
Michael
Coleman, Professor Epidemiology and Vital Statistics, Cancer Research UK Cancer
Survival Group, Department of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology, London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Daniel
Nichols, Romford CLP chair
Daniel
Cooper, National Union of Students National Executive Committee
Lynne
Roper, paramedic, Okehampton, Northampton
Ria
Bernard, London Young Labour Campaigns Officer
Liam
McNulty, London Young Labour Campaigns Officer
Hannah
Thompson, London Young Labour committee
Dan
Young, Chair, London Young Labour
Gavin
Sibthorpe, London Young Labour Policy Officer
Caroline
Hill, Young Labour committee Trade Union Officer
Conrad
Landin, Young Labour committee Eastern Representative
Rida
Vaquas, Young Labour committee, Under 19’s Officer
Max
Shanly, Young Labour committee, South East Representative
Janet
Shapiro, Hornsey and Wood Green Labour Party, Defend Haringey Health Services
Coalition.
Dr
Alex Scott-Samuel, joint chair, Politics of Health Group
Dr
Mary Edmondson, London
Dr Pam
Martin, London
Dr
Judith Ibison, GP and senior lecturer
Dr
Jack Czauderna, Retired GP and GPwSI in CFS/ME, Sheffield Save Our NHS
Dr
Maureen O’Leary, Retired Consultant Psychiatrist, Sheffield Save Our NHS
Dr
Helen Groom, Keep Our NHS Public North East
Dr
Aneez Esmail, Associate Vice-President, Social Responsibility and Equality
& Diversity, Manchester University
Martin
Manasse, Keep Our NHS Public North East
Annie
Moelwyn-Hughes
Val
Walsh, Liverpool
Teresa
Williamson
Gordon
Nardell, former Labour councillor
Judith
Varley, Liverpool University
Suresh
Chauhan, Leicester
Dr Sue
Povall, Liverpool University
Cam
Stocks
Robert
MacGibbon, BMA, Leiston Branch Labour Party deputy chair
Jilla
Burgess-Allen, Public Health Specialty Registrar, Public Health, Derby Council
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