Friday 16 December 2011

Bevan's run - Save the NHS from Lansley!

The government's health bill is an absolute disaster waiting to happen, of course it is not anything completely new, it is a continuation of the destructive market based reforms that have been going since the days of Maggie Thatcher.  Having said that though, Lansley's terrible paper is a rather rapid turn along this road of doom.

The media haven't really explained things properly to the public.  The reality of the bill is that it is a fast track towards a privatised NHS in which the tax payer merely pays private firms for health care.  This has simply not been explained to the public.  Part of the problem has been Lansley's lack of honesty and part of it has been the media's lack of objective analysis for whatever reasons.

Two people who have always said things exactly how it is are Allyson Pollock and Clive Peedell.  I would strongly advise popping past the former's site and reading some of her fantastic analysis of Lansley's dog's dinner.  The latter has been working and campaigning harder than anyone, in fact he is organising a protest run, called Bevan's run:

"January 10-15th, 2012. 160 miles in 6 days from Aneurin Bevan's Statue in Cardiff to the Department of Health, Richmond House, Whitehall, London. To protest against the Health and Social Care Bill and NHS privatisation. Calling at Witney (David Cameron's constituency). Follow me on Twitter @cpeedell and #bevansrun."

Bravo Dr Peedell.  If only the BMA had such fight and guts, we would not be in such a mess.  I would strongly recommend than anyone who cares about the NHS pays Dr Peedell's blog a visit and considers joining him for a part of his protest run.  If everyone thought and acted like Dr Peedell then the likes of Lansley would never get their malignant bills through Parliament.  I would urge everyone to think about getting involved in Bevan's run and at a minimum, forwarding on this information to their friends and colleagues.

Do we really want to tell our children that as Lansley stood next to the NHS with his box of matches and can of petrol, that we stood idly by and did nothing? 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Dear - I have not visited this site for a year or more, but remember it as a sane, practical view of the NHS and its problems.

Now having skimmed the last two or three posts I see it has been high-jacked by the worst sort of left-wing ranting.

I don't know who you are Garth - Are you the same guy who owned this well respected site two years ago?

I always guffaw when I hear anyone use the name of Nye Bevan to support their often unsupportable position, believing that Aneurin Bevan would be happy with anything as long as it was left-wing.

You insult him greatly IMHO. Yes he wanted health for all - yes he wanted a fairer society BUT if you read his speeches you would realise that he would be appalled by the current state of the NHS. He would also be appalled by the current state of Welfare in general.

Now I am not for one moment suggesting that Nye would be happy with Lansley and I am not in support of Lansley position necessarily - BUT Nye Bevan warned many times about Welfare dependency and would not have been in favour of just pouring money into the NHS for small returns.

You should read Nye's speeches and those of Morrison and other Labour leaders of the time and realise just how far NULab has moved from their vision.

Anonymous said...

Hello

Shame your comments are so very wide of the mark that they have to stray into the personal, sad really

Personally I think your words insult Bevan and what he stood for.

New Labour and the current conservative government, as well as earlier Tory governments have been destroying the efficient NHS for many years.

Money has been poured in, yes, but it has been poured into incessant deluded and naive market based reforms that have proven themselves to be an inefficient use of tax payer's funds.

The NHS doesn't need a market and it needs to be set free from political control, that is the only way it could succeed, unfortunately successive governments have failed it and have wrecked it with their poorly thought out reforms.

On welfare in general, there are good clever ways of incentivising people getting back into work, as there are ways of incentivising people to not abuse the NHS and to look after their own health.

The amusing thing is that you don't even know what I would do to the NHS if I hypothetically had the chance.

All I have done is pointed out the dishonest and inefficient nature of the government's reforms which are being continued by Lansley.

Just to repeat, the pouring money in has been in the name of privatising the system, it has been done ideologically and not based on evidence.

The medical profession has been deliberately sidelined, no reforms can work for patients without doctors being no board and they are not on board because the reforms are bad, bad news.

I am sorry but your 'skimming' has enitrely missed the point and given your game away, you may accuse me of ranting, unfortunately you are guilty of exactly what you accuse me of.

Weak.

Garth

Anonymous said...

Market-based reforms in the NHS are destroying a public service & allowing corporations to asset-strip public property.

A publically-funded healthcare system is one of the greatest triumphs of post-war Britain. The NHS has its faults. Despite a new lick of paint & lots of PFI builds, the NHS has suffered from chronic underinvestment over the years. New Labour poured money in, but most of this was wasted on empire-building, interspersed with serial reorganisations & a daft purchaser/provider split. If the NHS is being ripped of (by management consultants, outsource companies, PFI partners & Pharma) & money is being wasted (on managerialism for its own sake) the solution to stop this rather than to commerciailse the service, which will only result in more money being siphoned off.

Dependency culture is neither here nor there.

Anonymous said...

anoymous 1142

exactly and well said

there is nothing I can't stand more than people who just write off an argument or opinion as being 'left wing' or 'right wing'

generally it is rather lazy intellectually and demonstrates that that person has very little constructive or rational to bring to the table of debate

I am neither left wing or right wing, I would regards myself as very centrist

Markets have their place

They do not have a place in efficiently spending a fixed pot of tax payer's money in best providing health care for a nation though in the manner that they have been introduced by successive governments

Garth