WHILE 70,000 NHS workers were marching through London on Saturday celebrating the 70th anniversary of the NHS, the Tory-appointed bosses of NHS England were announcing more savage NHS cuts.
They announced that they will cut 17 routine procedures that have been in operation for years which they now deem to be ‘ineffective or risky’. These treatments will now be offered only if it is judged to be of ‘compelling’ benefit and if there are no cheaper alternatives. NHS England said the move would affect about 100,000 patients every year and ‘free up’ an estimated £200m.
The treatments to be cut are surgery for snoring, dilatation, and curettage for heavy menstrual bleeding, knee arthroscopies for osteoarthritis, and injections for non-specific back pain. The others are: Breast reduction, Removal of benign skin lesions, Grommets for Glue Ear, Tonsillectomy for sore throats, Haemorrhoid surgery, Hysterectomy for heavy menstrual bleeding, Chalazia (lesions on eyelids) removal, Anthroscopic compression for subacromial shoulder pain, Carpal tunnel syndrome release, Dupuytren’s contracture release for tightening of fingers, Ganglion excision – removal of non-cancerous lumps on the wrist or hand, Trigger finger release, and Varicose vein surgery.
The changes are to start in 2019-20. Presumably all the previous treatments for these conditions were in fact unnecessary, and the patients should have been turned away, and the staff sacked for wasting money! The truth is that hundreds of thousands of patients a year are to be dumped by the ‘National Health Service’, as the Tories seek to boost the military budget at the expense of the NHS.
Patients are to be thrown to the wolves, where they will be preyed on by a mass of private medical practitioners and con-men who will flock in to treat these ill people with quack remedies, at great expense. If they haven’t got the cash then they will have to suffer in silence until they die. This is what the NHS had been reduced to on its 70th birthday by the Tory Party and its NHS England tool.
The essence of the situation is that the working class and the trade unions must make sure that the NHS’ 70th birthday is not its last, as the big international monopolies move behind the EU-Canada trade deal to privatise it and make any legal challenge to it impossible.
The fact of the matter is that while the working class turned out last Saturday and demanded action to defend the NHS, the leaders who addressed it were full of fair words but very short on action.
Jonathan Ashworth, Labour Shadow Health Secretary, said: ‘This autumn the Labour Party is putting forward a bill to end privatisation. If it was possible to build the NHS 70 years ago it is possible to restore it now.’
Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the TUC, appealing to the Tories said: ‘The NHS is Britain’s best ever socialist achievement and the TUC is calling for a big boost in investment in the NHS. Stop outsourcing, stop privatisation, stop selling off our NHS.’ Labour leader Corbyn declared: ‘I want a different government committed to the NHS, housing and education.’ None of these leaders have reacted to the Tory government’s greatest crisis ever.
Three dozen Tory MPs have written to May warning her not to give into the Brussels drive to keep the UK in the EU’s customs union and single currency. The Sunday Times has revealed that up to 20 Tory MPs are preparing to run for her job. The government is collapsing and must be brought down by the working class.
Corbyn must move a vote of no confidence in May in the House of Commons while the TUC must tell the government that if it will not go, it will call a general strike to force it out. This is the way to defend the NHS by bringing down the Tories and carrying out the socialist policies that Labour stood on in the last general election including to renationalise the railways, end students tuition fees, to deal with any banking crisis with the policy of nationalisation, to end NHS privatisation and to leave the EU, its customs union and its single market. The Tories are now at their weakest. This is the time for Labour and the trade unions to bring them down to resolve the UK crisis – if they dare.
