Easy route to greater efficiencies in healthcare

Published: 23 June, 2011

• THE NHS has never had such high patient satisfaction since its founding, has a record of achieving good value for money compared with other countries, and provides effective equity in the provision of treatment and care. 

It does not need significant reorganisation at excessive cost to achieve the improve­ments necessary to deal with our aging population. The changes accepted by the govern­ment do not remove the ideological aim of privatising the health service. 

It needs to ensure the NHS is still the preferred provider of care.  

Patient choice is the cover for privatisation.  Were the market in healthcare to be abolished it would save at least £10billion a year and ensure greater efficiences; and the proposed changes would themselves cost in the order of £2 to £4billion.

Following its so-called listening exercise, the government has only made minor changes to the original bill. So MPs should be urged to scrap it. Let’s remove the huge uncertainty affecting staff and patients.

JOHN LIPETZ
Co-chair, Keep Our 
NHS Public