LORD Crisp, who was NHS chief executive in England from 2000 to 2006, has said there is over-capacity in the ‘hospital sector’ and that many hospitals should be closed or merged, which amounts to the same thing.
His position is that care, particularly for the elderly, must be shifted to the community, presumably where those consigned to their homes could be forgotten and would not interfere with the daily functioning of capitalism in crisis.
In a BBC interview, Crisp said: ‘The challenge now is dealing with the numbers of older people and those with long-term conditions. They need supporting in the community.
‘That means a shift away from hospitals. There will be less need for large hospital outpatient departments, and some services and whole hospitals will need to close or be merged with others.’
He conceded that this would affect the whole spectrum of the services that hospitals provide.
Crisp also condemned the Blair governments for missing the opportunity, when he was the NHS chief, of shutting down and ridding the country of this over-capacity as far as NHS hospitals are concerned, even adding to the capacity.
His message to the Cameron coalition is: ‘We missed that opportunity and this government needs to grasp that.’
He is urging the Cameron government to close hospitals right at the time when ministers are considering the future of A&E, maternity services and children’s units at three hospitals in north London.
Under the plans drawn up, one of the three, Chase Farm, is set to lose its 24-hour A&E, Maternity and Paediatric Departments.
All over the country similar plans are being pushed forward, and Crisp wants them carried out.
On September 7th the Health and Social Care Bill is to have its third and final parliamentary reading after which it will become law, and the NHS will be cut, closed and privatised.
Under the bill, there will be no legal duty on the government to provide health services.
A new ‘hands off’ clause limits the government’s ability to intervene should healthcare provision be deemed inadequate (the clause says clinical commissioning groups – the new agents of health provision which can include private companies – must be ‘free’ to exercise powers and duties without ‘unnecessary burdens’).
Existing procurement and competition laws are to apply, and are also enhanced by the Bill.
The private income cap (which currently ensures only a limited portion of a health trust’s income can be from private patients) will be removed.
The powers and duties of a commissioning group, including its abilities to award contracts and charge for commercial activities, can be exercised by a private healthcare company.
This will open the way for private companies to make super profits out of ending the NHS, as the fundamental legal basis for the NHS, which was put in place in 1946, is removed by the Bill.
Crisp is acting as a cheerleader for these measures that will see the District General Hospitals closed to prepare the way for the privateers.
Workers, youth and the elderly and all trade unions must now take action to defend the NHS.
Councils of Action must be formed to occupy hospitals to prevent their closure, to ensure that they carry on providing the services that are so desperately needed by communities.
At the same time, there must be a general strike organised by the trade unions to bring down the Cameron-led coalition and replace it by a workers government. This will see the safeguarding and further development of the NHS as one of its main tasks.
