NHS – safe in Tory hands?

Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt launched a 25-year plan for the NHS but failed to mention how he would fill a £822m hole in NHS finances. He also failed to address how he was going to lift morale while enforcing another four years of one per cent pay rises.

Hunt tried to duck questions over NHS funding – not mentioned in the 25-year plan – but refused to rule out making charges for NHS services in the future.

Hunt, who in the past has argued for an American-style insurance-based NHS, was challenged after a speech to the King’s Fund setting out a 25-year plan for the NHS.

Asked if the NHS could survive as a taxpayer funded organisation he reportedly said, “I am confident but I don’t have a crystal ball….I think that our model will work. But it’s going to need a huge effort from NHS organisations and NHS leaders to deliver that.”

Inquiry

The comments rang alarm bells as they came in the wake of statements from junior health minister Lord Prior in the House of Lords last week. Lord Prior said he would start discussions to establish an inquiry into extending charges in the NHS.

He told the Lords during a health debate, “We may wish to explore alternative charging systems or different funding systems.” This would be useful because “ to have a world-class health system will depend on our ability to create the wealth in this country to fund it….if demand for healthcare outstrips growth in the economy for a prolonged period, of course that premise has to be questioned.”

Hunt was forced to tell the Commons, “there is no independent review on charging for NHS services.” This does not rule out setting up a review or indeed another type of inquiry.

But, as loose-lipped Lord Prior suggested, “…we can frame some kind of independent inquiry—I do not think that it needs to be a Royal Commission. We are not short of people who could look at this issue for us; there are health foundations, such as the Nuffield Trust and the King’s Fund.

“The issue is: what will the long-term demand for healthcare be in this country in 10 or 20 years’ time? Will we have the economic growth to fund it?”

‘Very worrying’  

Labour seized on the comments. “Jeremy Hunt’s refusal to guarantee that an NHS free-at-the-point-of-use will continue under the Tories is very worrying indeed, though sadly not surprising given he once put his name to a pamphlet arguing the NHS should be replaced with an insurance-based system,” shadow health minister Jamie Reed told the Guardian.

“It could mean charges for treatment are just around the corner. Prior to the election American doctors warned that the Tories were taking the NHS down a path towards a US-style system and it now looks as if this was a prescient warning,” he added.

“The truth is that the NHS simply won’t be here in 25 years’ time if the Tories are allowed to continue with their toxic plans for cuts, charges and privatisation.”

Commenting, Unite’s national officer for health Barrie Brown said,  “You could gift wrap a large hospital with the paper used to print each new ‘plan’ that Hunt is announcing. None of them address the huge deficits faced by NHS Trusts which are set to get worse.

“He demands seven-day NHS services without knowing how he will do it or fund it. He has picked a row with doctors which seems to be little more than a smokescreen to cover the lack of a plan that adds up to more than his simple ‘seven-day working slogan’.

“Hunt is hammering down on staff morale by yet another prolonged reduction in living standards across the NHS workforce through a four-year freeze on pay. I have no doubt the Tories will ensure they get a review of NHS charging, perhaps done by one their favourite right-wing think tanks.

“What’s shocking is that prior to the general election they said the NHS was safe in their hands. It’s taken only a few weeks for that claim to be undermined by their health ministers.”