Labour party will continue use of private contractors in the NHS
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《英国医生杂志》
The UK Labour party is to push ahead with plans to extend privatisation of the NHS, despite an overwhelming rejection of the policy by delegates attending its annual conference last week.
A motion that called for the suspension of all plans to increase care provided by the private sector in the NHS won backing from 71% of delegates at the conference.
David Prentis, leader of the public sector union Unison, which tabled the motion, said the NHS should not be run on a "fragmented basis," with different parts "competing for patients." He accused the government, which plans to outsource some secondary care to private treatment centres, of "not learning from flawed Tory policies of the past" and insisted that the plan was "simply not acceptable from our Labour government."
The health minister Rosie Winterton (left) makes a point at the Labour party conference, watc hed by Dianne Hayter, a member of Labour's national executive, and health secretary Patricia Hewitt (right)
Credit: BRENDAN KELLY/MOUSETRAP MEDIA LTD
However, the government indicated that it intends to continue its efforts to give patients more choice, making it a priority for its third term in office. The secretary of state for health, Patricia Hewitt, told the conference that spending just 1% of the total NHS budget would enable independent treatment centres to carry out around 10% of NHS operations by 2008 and so would ease waiting lists.
"This isn't privatisation," Ms Hewitt said. "We are not selling off NHS hospitals." She argued that the NHS has always made use of the private sector by contracting self employed GPs who work on their own premises.
Frank Dobson, a former Labour health secretary and one of more than 30 medical professionals, writers, and health policy experts leading a campaign to "keep our NHS public" ( BMJ 2005;331: 713, 1 Oct), warned that the government was ignoring widespread concern in the medical profession and among the public. "Large numbers of people working in the NHS are very concerned at the government franchising out cheap and easy operations on the healthy and leaving the NHS to provide complex care to the unhealthy," he said.
Given the choice, Mr Dobson argued, most people would want a top quality public health service within reasonable distance. "Instead, people will be deprived of any say in where they are treated, or to stay near home they will have to go somewhere where they get inferior treatment."
Mr Dobson argued that improvements in the NHS had been largely responsible for recent reductions in waiting lists, not private sector involvement. He feared that operations provided by the private sector would cost the taxpayer more than those provided by the NHS. "Ultimately, a private company's only obligation is to its shareholders," he said.(Sophie Arie)
A motion that called for the suspension of all plans to increase care provided by the private sector in the NHS won backing from 71% of delegates at the conference.
David Prentis, leader of the public sector union Unison, which tabled the motion, said the NHS should not be run on a "fragmented basis," with different parts "competing for patients." He accused the government, which plans to outsource some secondary care to private treatment centres, of "not learning from flawed Tory policies of the past" and insisted that the plan was "simply not acceptable from our Labour government."
The health minister Rosie Winterton (left) makes a point at the Labour party conference, watc hed by Dianne Hayter, a member of Labour's national executive, and health secretary Patricia Hewitt (right)
Credit: BRENDAN KELLY/MOUSETRAP MEDIA LTD
However, the government indicated that it intends to continue its efforts to give patients more choice, making it a priority for its third term in office. The secretary of state for health, Patricia Hewitt, told the conference that spending just 1% of the total NHS budget would enable independent treatment centres to carry out around 10% of NHS operations by 2008 and so would ease waiting lists.
"This isn't privatisation," Ms Hewitt said. "We are not selling off NHS hospitals." She argued that the NHS has always made use of the private sector by contracting self employed GPs who work on their own premises.
Frank Dobson, a former Labour health secretary and one of more than 30 medical professionals, writers, and health policy experts leading a campaign to "keep our NHS public" ( BMJ 2005;331: 713, 1 Oct), warned that the government was ignoring widespread concern in the medical profession and among the public. "Large numbers of people working in the NHS are very concerned at the government franchising out cheap and easy operations on the healthy and leaving the NHS to provide complex care to the unhealthy," he said.
Given the choice, Mr Dobson argued, most people would want a top quality public health service within reasonable distance. "Instead, people will be deprived of any say in where they are treated, or to stay near home they will have to go somewhere where they get inferior treatment."
Mr Dobson argued that improvements in the NHS had been largely responsible for recent reductions in waiting lists, not private sector involvement. He feared that operations provided by the private sector would cost the taxpayer more than those provided by the NHS. "Ultimately, a private company's only obligation is to its shareholders," he said.(Sophie Arie)