LONDON - This week's Labour Party conference at Brighton is all set to be a stormy affair, as the unions who are angry at the move to privatize certain services in the NHS will confront Prime Minister Tony Blair.
However, Blair is unlikely to be moved as he argues that if the Party is to win a fourth term, public sector reforms must be pushed through, "Just as the public wants us to do more to tackle world poverty and climate change, so they want us to step up the pace of reform at home," he wrote in the delegates' guide.
Former minister Michael Meacher has rubbished Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt's promise that NHS treatments would remain free, "For the Government to allow private companies bidding for NHS work to take over NHS premises, doctors and nurses and to be guaranteed payments even if patients choose not to use their services is frankly unacceptable," he said.
Unison general secretary, Dave Prentis is an angry man over this move and plans to take it up in a big way at the conference, "The Government is pushing through its so-called 'reform' agenda with no debate within the party or consultations with patients and staff, no thought of the consequences and no clear vision of where it will lead," he thundered.
Former health secretary Frank Dobson and a few other notable dignataries including writers Nick Hornby, Philip Pullman, Claire Rayner and Claire Tomalin, and the poet laureate, Andrew Motion along with Professor David Hunter of Durham University, and Professor Rodney Reznek, a leading radiologist have signed a letter urging the government not to press ahead with its plans. The letter appeared in Saturday's Guardian.
"Before long we will have a health insurance system and the NHS's role as a provider of care will be limited to picking up the difficult cases and looking after the worst off," said Dobson in an interview to the paper.
Posted
on : Mon, 26 Sep 2005 07:50 GMT | General News
By : Paula Jenkins
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