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Hands off our National
Health Service
The Anglian Pensioner Association
World War II commenced in Sept.1939 and
ended in 1945. For the first two years
Britain stood alone. During that time vast
quantities of gold bullion was shipped to
America along with lucrative British
Government Assets in South America to pay
for weapons and supplies. America entered
the conflict in Dec. 1941 only when it was
attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbour.
When Labour was elected in 1945 Britain was
almost bankrupt, but within two years the
National Health Service was created. The
main instigator was health minister
Aneurin
Bevin, and it was based on the Beveridge
Report. In view of Britain's dire financial
situation it was a very commendable
achievement, and later became the envy of
the world.
Now. sixty years on we have a New Labour
prime minister who is hell bent on
dismantling the NHS by replacing it with a
two-tier system, promoting privatisation and
funnelling billions of pounds of NHS cash
into the private sector to pay for
operations that are considerably more
expensive than those carried out by the NHS.
And even honouring contracts when no service
has been provided.
A government sponsored private sector with
the wherewithal to poach the most qualified
staff from the NHS will eventually result in
only the wealthy having access to the best
doctors, surgeons and specialists while the
less fortunate will have to take pot-luck
with the resources available of the NHS.
Around 12 percent of NHS trusts are already
asking hospitals to delay operations due to
the funding crisis which is also affecting
other areas of the NHS.
For example, in 2003 the first private
Accident and Emergency department opened,
with priority treatment for cash. But how
many pensioners classified as living below
the poverty line or workers receiving the
minimum wage could take advantage of that
scheme?
During New Labour's reign, due to the lack
of trained staff, doctors and nurses were
recruited from third world countries that
had used their meagre resources for training
purposes. Now, as a result of our
government’s poaching policy there is a
serious deficit of medical personnel in
those poorer countries. How ethical is that?
By the end of the financial year the NHS
will be £1 billion in debt, as a consequence
newly qualified nurses are unable to find
work in the health service and are now
working in shops and pubs. The 2,000 junior
doctors who have now completed their initial
training at a cost of £237.000 are also
unable to find jobs because of the shortage
of training posts.
In 2004 statistics showed that there were
around 199,600 hospital beds compared with
244,000 administration staff.
With 80 per cent of hospitals in the red,
resources are being wasted by the pursuit of
government targets and additional
bureaucracy. NHS managers are receiving
record salaries of £200,000.Agency nurses
cost the NHS trusts £625million in 2004 as
against £216 million in1997.
New Labour's solution for cutting waiting
lists - create a waiting list to get on the
waiting lists.
A recent report revealed that more than
30 hospitals have full-time Arts
co-ordinators and Arts managers. A London
hospital advertised for a Visual Arts
Director - the salary £36,693.
All is not lost - Support the campaign to
KEEP our NHS public
www.keepourNHSpublic.com
www.nhscampaign.org
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