Opposition to Health and Social Care Bill

One of my first political memories is the selling of the Railways by the then Tory government lead by Margaret Thatcher. It almost seems that I am experiencing deja vue as the current Tory government are not fully privatising the NHS but opening the NHS up to it.

At present the bill for the NHS reform is passing through the house of commons. Thankfully the bill is in its third form due to the reaction by the the general public and lobbying by the Labour party at all levels.


Even though the bill has been iterated on and a lot of the initial policies have been toned down or scrapped entirely we are at a water shed moment. Once this bill is pushed through by the coalition there will be no turning back the only out come is that the NHS will steadily become privatised over a number of years.


The following scenario will more than likely happen, as the government cuts front line services further were will the NHS get funding from, it will be forced to get the funding from the private sector. What this means is that the NHS will need to treat more private sector patients which will create longer waiting queues for regular patients.


One of the coalitions claims is that this bill will reduce the level of bureaucracy within the NHS, the below diagram compares the current system and the proposed system. The diagram clearly shows that the new system would introduce five extra tiers of bureaucracy.
 

Below diagram is courtesy of the BBC News website



Surely the best judges of any new bill would be the professional organisations that represent the interests of doctors, nurses and midwives, so far these organisations are all appose to any new bill. More detail is given in this BBC article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13942819  


Finally I do not object to the NHS reform bill just because I support the opposition party. It is because I feel that the bill will do detrimental damage to the NHS and country as a whole, once these changes are implemented there will be no turning back. 

Closure of Remploy Factoreis

I am saddened by the possible closure of the Remploy Factory on Accrington Rd due to the Government accepting the recommendations of the Report prepared by Liz Sayce. Remploy gives adults with various disabilities a chance to contribute and take pride in the work their do  .

Phil Davies the GMB National Secretary states that it would cost the Treasury less to keep the factories operating fully loaded rather than putting the workers out of work on welfare. This is the the same Conservative/Lib Dem government who are trying to reduce the amount of benefits it has to pay out and get people back into work.

If the factory is to close then many of these workers would find it hard to get new employment as according to Remploy, workers who lost their jobs in 2008 are still on welfare 3 years later. Additionally the Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey, Jan - March 2009 found that 23% of disabled people have no qualifications compared to 9% of non disabled people which puts disabled adults at an instant disadvantage. Finally we are possible facing a double dip recession where non disabled adults are struggling to find employment.

Is the Consertive/Lib Dem government going to let these disabled workers simply go on benefits or do they have an alternative solution to help them find new employment ?

I strongly urge anybody who reads this letter to sign the online petition at http://www.saveremployfactories.co.uk/ at the writing of this letter the GMB had collected 3771 signatures.