{"id":30039,"date":"2021-09-21T13:27:49","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T12:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=30039"},"modified":"2021-09-21T13:27:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T12:27:52","slug":"health-and-care-bill-trojan-horse-for-more-nhs-privatisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=30039","title":{"rendered":"Health and Care bill ‘Trojan horse’ for more NHS privatisation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The government has been accused using the pandemic as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a smokescreen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to push through the Health and Care Bill that will open the floodgates for more NHS privatisation, Unite warned today (September 21).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite, which has 100,000 members working in the health sector, said the bill that has its Third Reading in The Commons in mid- October is a recipe for more privatisation and cronyism in England with an adverse impact for patients as waiting lists for treatments continue to soar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite national officer for health Jackie Williams said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe NHS is our greatest achievement and after a decade of underfunding and coping with the Covid-19 pandemic this bill is not the prescription we need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bInstead of helping our NHS, this bill invites private companies to make further inroads into our NHS to the detriment of patients and workers and gives the secretary of state new powers to interfere in the work of health professionals.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the bill becomes law, it would allow for so-called for Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) to cherry pick services and undermine current working practices. APMS contracts are not in the interests of either the public or health care professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite is emailing its members to write their MPs urging them to vote against the bill dubbed  as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Trojan Horse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for profit-hungry private healthcare companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackie Williams added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAPMS contracts have been described by legal professionals as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098the private sector’s gateway to providing primary health care to NHS patients\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. They allow companies that are not owned or controlled by medical professionals to run GP surgeries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis bill is deeply flawed and creates pathways for health systems that are based on models developed by the private insurance industry in the USA and elsewhere, with profit as the key priority. Such an approach would undermine the universal and patient-driven service that we have all cherished since the NHS\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 formation in 1948,” she continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMinisters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 appetites for further NHS privatisation are undiminished and it is clear that they are cynically using the continuing pandemic as a smokescreen for accelerating NHS privatisation. They have not learnt the lesson of the PPE scandal when lucrative contracts were fast-tracked to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098friends\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of the Tory establishment,” Williams went on to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tories have short memories and forget the adverse impact of the disastrous 2012 Health and Social Care Act, promoted by then health secretary Andrew Lansley, which caused the fragmentation of the NHS and was an \u00e2\u20ac\u0098open sesame\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for the private sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe proposed legislation is a Trojan horse for more privatisation, cronyism, NHS cuts and a licence for politicians to run down and sell-off the NHS,” she noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAttempting to drive this through, while we are still in the middle of a pandemic, with an estimated 5.4 million on the waiting lists in England and vacancies in the health service running at an estimated 90,000, is a disgrace. The focus for this Tory government should be addressing the staffing crisis and deskilling through associate roles is not the answer.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Unite campaign page regarding the bill can be accessed here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite is dedicated to advancing the jobs, pay and conditions of its members and will fight back against any efforts to diminish workers’ living standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Shaun Noble<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government has been accused using the pandemic as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a smokescreen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to push through the Health and Care Bill that will open the floodgates for more NHS privatisation, Unite warned today (September 21). Unite, which has 100,000 members working in the health sector, said the bill that has its Third Reading in The Commons in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1723,29,81],"wps_subtitle":"Government accused of using pandemic as 'smokescreen' to push through new health bill","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30039"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30043,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30039\/revisions\/30043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}