THE NHS ‘cannot survive a second term of Tory-led government,’ the Labour Party’s Chair of General Election Strategy, Douglas Alexander, said yesterday.
He was echoing Shadow Health Secretary Burnham’s remarks to the Sunday Mirror that handing David Cameron another five years in charge of our hospitals would create a ‘toxic mix of cuts and privatisation’ that will spell its doom.
He added: ‘We need a big change. The party that created the NHS back in 1948 says it’s time to re-set the NHS for the 21st Century.’
Burnham warned this winter could be the worst for patients and staff in 25 years.
He continued that the first thing he would do if Labour wins the 2015 election is repeal David Cameron’s hated Health and Social Care Act.
Alexander, launching a 27-page dossier warned that five more years of the Tories would mean longer waiting times, spending levels back to where they were in the 1930s and more privatisation.
The dossier said that seven out of the 15 patients’ rights enshrined in the NHS constitution have been breached, including those setting maximum waiting times of four hours at A&E, 62 days for cancer treatment, and six weeks for diagnostic tests.
The dossier warned that the Health and Social Care Act, which has opened up the NHS to the full force of competition law, is on course to double the scale of privatisation.
On current trends the NHS is on course for over 4,000 private sector contracts being awarded over the next five years with up to £10bn of the NHS budget being spent on private providers.
The dossier pledges that Labour will repeal the Health & Social Care Act.
Alexander said: ‘There is nothing which better symbolises the difference between Labour’s vision for the future and that of the Tories than our NHS.
‘But we need your help to save it. Today we are launching a four month campaign to make clear that our health service as you know it won’t survive another five years of David Cameron.’
In response to the Labour Party’s dossier, Dr Mark Porter, BMA council chair, said: ‘We believe that the changes to the NHS pursued by successive governments, such as increased privatisation and competition, are eroding the core principles of our healthcare system.
‘Instead of focusing on delivering high-quality care for patients, the NHS is being damaged by distracting reorganisation and increasing transaction costs.
‘It is a reflection on how hard front-line staff are working that the quality of patient care has so far been protected, and indeed improved, despite years of underinvestment, but the NHS has reached a crossroads and pressure on services is now at a critical point with cracks beginning to appear.’