---------------------------
---------------------------
---------------------------
---------------------------
Labour attempt to block Conservative plans to privatise 49% of the NHS
In an opposition debate, Andy Burnham will call upon the bill’s potential to produce longer waiting lists for non-private patients and the creation of a two-tiered National Health Service. The plans that make up the bill could also see hospitals being pitted against each other based on financial factors as opposed to patient care delivery, putting the emphasis away from the core reasoning for the development of the NHS when it was first established.
With patients sewing up their own wounds and ignoring ailments and bigger medical issues because of costs in the USA's privatised system of health care, the potential negatives of increasing privatisation in the UK become apparent. The is that a patient that has paid their taxes and national insurance for many years could end up getting a second tier service compared to a private patient in NHS hospitals.
While the Conservatives will counter this with talk of the need to maximise funding for the NHS and Labour’s recent history of cuts to NHS budgets, many argue that these are not reasons enough to take on the implications of privatisation in the NHS.
With Andrew Lansley scrambling around for peer support in the House of Lords before Christmas and, according to the Labour website, leaked emails from Lib Dem activists revealing huge grassroots concern about the issue, the bill is looking as though it might be on the ropes, but only time will tell on an issue that would fundamentally change the NHS.
© 2009 Tuppence Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
Tuppence Magazine UK is an entertainment, news & reviews website that delivers my take and your take on stuff about music news, film release dates & trailers, television, books, computer games, food & drink, politics, theatre, comedy, art and fashion. Send in your reviews.
