The Government Should Drop its Damaging Health Bill
Posted by Joan Walley, MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, at 15:39, Thu 24 November 2011:
Labour is launching a major national drive to unite the country in a call on the Government to drop its unwanted Health and Social Care Bill.
The ‘Drop the Bill’ campaign, at www.dropthebill.com, aims to show the full scale of opposition to the Government’s plans. It will unite patients, NHS professionals and the public in a final rallying cry. Labour’s Shadow Health team will be visiting every English region over the coming months, work-shadowing healthcare professionals and mobilising support for the campaign across the country.
In Stoke-on-Trent we have already seen waiting-times increase since David Cameron came to power. Yet his plans encourage local hospitals to treat more private patients while NHS patients are left waiting longer. They create a postcode lottery in the NHS, where patients are refused treatments in one area that their friends can get in another. It amounts to a £2-3 billion waste of money, which would be better spent on medicines, equipment and staff.
The people of Stoke-on-Trent did not vote for it and our doctors, nurses and patients have already expressed huge concerns at the plans. Yet Cameron is ploughing on with his Health Bill, ignoring public and professional opinion. Before the election David Cameron ruled out top-down NHS re-organisations. But only weeks after entering Number 10, Cameron ripped up his own words and ordered the biggest and most dangerous upheaval of the NHS since it began.
In these tough times, the NHS is facing the biggest financial challenge in its history. But instead of focusing all of its energy on dealing with this challenge, the NHS is being distracted by a dangerous upheaval that has no democratic legitimacy.
The ’Drop the Bill’ campaign is the final push and the Government must listen before it's too late. They must put the NHS first.
Comments
If you are subscribed to HearFromYourMP in this constituency,
log in to post a reply.
Otherwise, if you live in the UK,
sign up in order to
HearFromYourMP.
Posted by George Thompson, 16:13, Thu 24 November 2011: (Is this post abusive?) #
Nice of a labour MP to ley us know how badly the goverment is wasting our money after the 13 years Labour spent getting rid of every penny we the public paid in tax and untold billions the country never had,so now that the nation is falling apart at the seams it's the present goverments fault. If labour hadn't filled this country with UNWANTED immigrants who are claiming massive benifits that people born and bred in the UK can't claim even when they are on the breadline,after fiddling their expenses and most of them getting away with fraud and God knows what else,why the hell would anyone listen to a Labour MP about anything.This goverment certainly couldn't do any worse than the Labour idiots and with a bit of luck might do better. WE LIVE IN HOPE THAT ONE DAY WE THE PEOPLE WILL GET A GOVERMENT THAT ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT THE PEOPLE AND THE COUNTRY AND ARE NOT JUST OUT TO LINE THEIR OWN POCKETS AND MAKE SURE THEIR PENSIONS ARE TOP NOTCH. George Thompson (ex Warrent Officer RN)
Posted by Mark Koszler, 16:49, Thu 24 November 2011: (Is this post abusive?) #
I really hope the government listen on this issue. Suffering from a number of chronic illnesses myself I know how much stress and worry this is causing people like myself. This is on top of the worry that many people with serious illnesses(luckily I am not one of them) have about ATOS assessments for ESA and also talk of future assessments for DLA which for many sick and disabled people is a real life line. I am glad that labour at least are standing up and fighting for the best thing that labour ever did which was introduce the NHS. Just look at the behaviour of the tories everytime they have had a say about the NHS, they were against it from the start and have worked time and time again to destroy it. If people don't stand up and say "LEAVE OUR NHS ALONE" it will be gone before we even realise what has happened. Do we really want a model like in the US where people are unable to access healthcare if they find themselves without a job that includes health insurance?
Posted by Ashley Kennedy, 17:19, Thu 24 November 2011: (Is this post abusive?) #
At last the labour movement has listened to the people of Britain. A general strike might be an appropriate method to get this government's attention as they don't appear to listen to any other opinions but their own outdated ideologically driven clap trap.
Posted by Elliott Oakes, 17:39, Thu 24 November 2011: (Is this post abusive?) #
Dear Joan Whalley. I do not believe or agree with your statement, or that of the present government for that matter, because you all of you say and do whatever suits your own personal agenda on any given day.If any of you had an honest caring thought in your head you would be working together to fix the mess that succesive governments have got the country into. Instead, you all insist on childish political point scoring and no doubt go home at night thinking you have done a good day's work. Ha! You mention democratic legitimacy in your statement. None of you have democratic legitimacy because half the voting population(the ones that know it is futile to vote) never turn out to vote anyway. Even if the whole population did vote the M Ps they vote for would be expected to toe the party line (or else). Very few free votes take place on important matters, how can that be democratic. Also, as any M P will tell you they are not there to do the bidding of the people who elected them or even to carry out the things they promised during their election campaign. They are there to make their own judgement and vote as they alone feel is correct on the day(if they get a free vote). That is not democracy either. So Mrs. Walley, If you have any shame, if you have any concience, if you would like to earn the respect of the voting population then scrap this campaign and start one that asks all M Ps to take a long hard look at themselves and ask this question. Am I in the business of looking after the UK or am I just in politics. Because being in politics is not going to put right the dreadfull situation that this nation has been put in by years of spineless, self serving political decisions. Elliott Oakes