OVER 2,000 consultants, GPs, medical students and their supporters marched from the British Medical Association head office, Tavistock Square to Wednesday evening’s TUC rally in Westminster.
The march to demand the scrapping of the Health and Social Care Bill was called by the BMA’s London region and was joined by delegations of university students, North East London Council of Action, the PCS, and anti-cuts groups.
News Line spoke to some of the marchers before they set off.
Retired consultant Dick Symonds from Broadstairs said: ‘I’ve come to defend the NHS against the Tories who want to privatise it.
‘The NHS is the best benefit that Britain has brought to the world.
‘The Tory plans will lead to increasing privatisation because your doctor cannot be expected to run a business and be a doctor.
‘So he will have to hand it over increasingly to private companies.
‘Under the iron laws of capitalism, small companies get to be big ones and we end up with the NHS being run by American health corporations like Kaiser.
‘All trade unions should stand together on this and take action.
‘The NHS is still the best model, until Thatcher started this silly game of let’s pretend we’re a business.’
NHS Consultants Association president, retired consultant physician Peter Fisher told News Line: ‘Our association has been opposed to the Bill since it first saw the light as a White Paper.
‘It’s totally unnecessary and a waste of public money when the NHS budget is being squeezed.
‘The government said just before the election that they would not have any major reorganisation of the NHS.
‘The first thing when they got in is this!
‘The public was warned. We all have to take whatever action we can under the law, that’s why we are on this march today.’
King’s College first year medical student Tom Stocks said: ‘It took me a while to get to medical school.
‘The only reason I went is to work in the NHS.
‘This privatisation isn’t the NHS I long to work in.
‘The Health Bill opens the NHS to 49 per cent of private patients.
‘That means patients who can’t afford treatment will have to wait.
‘We have to throw the Bill out.
‘It’s not what we voted for. It’s not what the people want.
‘The TUC should be calling a general strike to support doctors and nurses who can’t strike because it would harm patients.
‘In my view, this is one of the biggest battles in trade union history.’
Claire was with a group of GP trainees at the Royal Free Hospital.
She said: ‘We disagree with the Health and Social Care Bill, it will be damaging for the NHS.
‘It will bring in market forces which is not good for healthcare.
‘It will bring in competition which does not result in improved quality of care.’
Another GP trainee, Charlotte, added: ‘GPs being in control of budgets will fundamentally alter the doctor/patient relationship.’
Hackney GP Deborah Colvin told News Line: ‘I’m protesting. I’ve been fighting this Bill from the beginning.
‘The NHS is functioning at an all-time high.
‘It is one of the most efficient and effective health services in the world.
‘The government want to pick it apart and bring in a system based on America, which has the most inefficiant, inequitable and expensive health service in the world.
‘Everyone should take action over this and defeat the Bill.
‘It is so undemocratic. no one voted for it and the government aren’t listening.
‘The people they say know what’s good for patients don’t want it – and they are not listening to them either.’
Consultant oncologist Clive Peedell, who caried out Bevan’s Run from Cardiff to the Department of Health in January, told News Line: ‘I’m here to continue to campaign aginst the Health and Social Care Bill.
‘I want it dropped.
‘I want the Lib Dems who are oppsed to stand up against the Orange wing at their conference and show they are opposed to this Bill.
‘The professions don’t support the Bill.
‘It’s flawed, it doesn’t have a democratic mandate.
‘It will damage the health of the nation and it needs to be dropped.
‘I support GPs just referring patients to the NHS, not to the private sector.’
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber warned at the Central Hall rally that ‘the Health Bill is the biggest threat the NHS has ever seen’.
He told the assmebled 2,000: ‘The All Together for the NHS campaign is an unprecedented alliance of unions, royal colleges, professional groups, health service staff, patients and members of the public.
‘Together we are speaking up for a publicly-accountable health service, for the values that make our NHS special, and for the ethos of public service itself.
‘With the Health and Social Care Bill now going through the Lords, it’s vital that we make our voices heard. I want the message to go out loud and clear that our NHS is not for sale, not today, not tomorrow, and not ever.
‘The government’s Bill represents the biggest threat our NHS has ever seen. It will mean £3 billion spent on change instead of care, NHS patients pushed to the back of the queue by those with fatter chequebooks, and a postcode lottery of provision.
‘The Bill will also mean privatisation on a huge scale, with our health service opened up to competition by any willing provider.
‘Private firms will profit by cherry-picking the easiest, most lucrative work – leaving the taxpayer to pick up the tab for everything else.
‘That is simply not acceptable.
‘This is a Bill that is wrong for patients, wrong for the public, and wrong for Britain.
‘Virtually nobody wants these reforms, almost nobody supports them, and certainly nobody voted for them.
‘Cast your minds back to the last election. David Cameron said there would be no top-down reorganisation of the NHS, but now we have reforms the chief executive of the NHS says are so big they can be seen from space.
‘David Cameron said that NHS spending would be protected, but now we have real-terms cuts and 53,000 NHS staff, including doctors and nurses, losing their jobs.
‘David Cameron said that the health service would be safe in his hands, but now we have the biggest, most dangerous upheaval in the 64-year history of our NHS.
‘The Prime Minister needs to understand that if he presses ahead with this ill-conceived, reckless, expensive Bill, then he will pay a devastating political price.
‘The stakes could not be higher.
‘The NHS is one of Britain’s defining achievements, and we will not allow this government to destroy what has taken generations to build.
‘Together we can make progress as the arguments are on our side, the overwhelming majority of NHS professionals are on our side, and most importantly of all, the British people are on our side.
‘So let’s build the widest possible coalition against these reforms, let’s work with Peers to stop this Bill in its tracks, and together let’s save our NHS.’
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: ‘We have just 13 days to save the NHS from falling into the hands of the private healthcare companies that are set to make millions in profits for their shareholders.
‘The government is steamrollering the Bill through parliament despite united opposition from professionals, patients and the public.
‘The amendments in the Lords may have bought off the Lib Dems but they will do nothing for patients, and the public will see through them.
‘The public needs to step up the pressure and urge MPs to vote against this Bill.
‘Otherwise, the NHS that we have known since its formation in 1948 – a universal service, free at the point of delivery – will disappear forever into the hands of profiteers.’
He went on to warn: ‘MPs need to know that if they fail to scrap the Bill their constituents will make their views known at the ballot box at the next general election.
‘We cannot have an NHS where wallets come before need or where the boardroom beats the ward.
‘The message is simple and clear – we want a health service that is based on the needs of the many, not the profits of few.’
Earlier, the BMA Consultants Conference voted unanimously for motions calling for the government to publish the NHS Risk Register, and supporting the BMA Council’s decision to reject the Bill in its entirety and call for its withdrawal.
Consultants also passed a motion of no confidence in Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, despite being instructed not to do so by Consultants Committee Chair Dr Mark Porter.
