Yvette Cooper must prioritise investing in the NHS over boosting corporate profits
This week a new Prime Minister - Andy Burnham - took to Number 10, and selected his brand new cabinet. He has chosen former Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper for the position of Health Secretary, making her the 11th person to hold this role in the last decade.
Labour came into power promising to fix the NHS crisis and make improving patients’ access to healthcare a top priority. Two years on from the election and, although we have seen some small improvements, the reality has been a series of policy decisions that have entrenched rather than repaired the damage past governments have done.
Patients’ lives are still being put at risk every day by urgent care delays, fuelled by a crisis in social care that leaves hospital patients with nowhere to go. Underfunded GP services are reaching breaking point, with patients facing huge barriers getting access to care. Burnt out health workers are being pushed out of the NHS due to immense workload and unfair pay and conditions.
Meanwhile, big tech, big pharma and private healthcare companies are cashing in on this crisis, being handed billions of taxpayer’s money in contracts and deals that drain resources and capacity away from our NHS and ride roughshod over patients’ rights.
Our struggling NHS cannot survive more of this failed approach. Yvette Cooper urgently needs to change course, and prioritise investing in the NHS instead of boosting corporate profits. That means a total rethink of these harmful policies:
The US-UK deal on pharmaceuticals
New PFI arrangements for neighbourhood health centres
Job cuts underway in hospitals across England
Increases in the use of private providers in community diagnostics and other areas|
The Palantir FDP contract
Instead, Cooper and Burnham should set out a clear timetable to take NHS services and care back into the public sector over the next 7 years, with the investment needed to back this up.
That’s exactly what Just Treatment will continue to campaign for, and we need as many patients as possible to be a part of it.