NHS SCOTLAND has secret plans to introduce a two-tier health service in which the wealthy can pay for their treatment and the poor are kicked out of hospital within 24-hours!
Unite, the UK’s biggest union, which has 100,000 members working in the NHS who are currently being balloted for strike action to achieve a pay rise in line with inflation, described the plans as ‘shameful’ and ‘sickening’.
The proposal for the introduction of the two-tier system discussed by leaders of NHS Scotland has been revealed in a leak of draft minutes of their meeting in September, in which they also propose curtailing free prescriptions.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said yesterday: ‘These plans would destroy the NHS and create a privatised healthcare system where the value of a life is measured by the ability to pay for treatment.
‘Even discussing such a possibility is sickening.
‘The NHS was founded on the principle of free care being available at point of need.
‘There can be no capitulation to the vulture capitalism that makes the American health system the shame of the civilised world.
‘Instead of chief executives meeting to discuss secret privatisation plans they ought to be prioritising a decent pay offer for staff which would begin to address the staff-exodus crisis.’
Unite Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty said: ‘The idea that this is even being discussed by those that have a job to protect the NHS is shameful.’
He added: ‘Unite in Scotland is now calling for an inquiry into why income-based care was on the agenda and who supported it.’
Last month, the British Medical Association in Scotland said the region’s NHS is in a ‘perilous situation’, with 6,000 nursing and midwifery posts unfilled.
Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said in his Autumn Statement last Thursday that the country must ask ‘challenging questions’ on how to reform all public services, including the NHS.
The minutes of the NHS Scotland meeting summarise ‘themes, issues and ideas’ during 45 minutes of discussions on Wednesday, 21 September, about ‘what a transformed NHS could look like’.
They ask: ‘What can be done with the financial constraints that we have?’ and in answer, propose to ‘design in a two-tier system where the people who can afford to go private’ can do so.
They then propose to change ‘the risk appetite from what we see in hospitals,’ suggesting a target for patients to be discharged to their home for treatment after a maximum of 23 hours.
