Where are the Labour Party, they spout the usual rhetoric, but Miliband swaps defending the NHS for hanging out with his millionaire chums.

Most of the government has it's filthy profiteering hands in private health care companies as this report shows, the depth of personal interest in this policy is breathtaking, it looks like even the dogs of MP's have shares in some healthcare company or pharma company.

So Lansley will be getting that chairmanship at Care UK as repayment from Nash of Care UK who funded his political campaign in 2010, as the telegraph stated,

“John Nash, the chairman of Care UK, gave £21,000 to fund Andrew Lansley’s personal office in November 2010. Mr Nash, a private equity tycoon, also manages several other businesses providing services to the NHS and stands to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Conservative policies to increase the use of private health providers.“

And they love it, the audacity they have, as they sat around the cabinet table banging their privileged fists down in celebration of destroying one the biggest gain the working classes ever achieved in this country. Those fists may be hitting wood, but the reverberations will be felt in every ill persons body as care is reduced, services have to be paid for all to ensure private health companies profits rise and enter the pockets of the MP's.

Just remember this, when your're lying in a pile of your own blood and filth waiting for an ambulance that turns up late, to take you to a hospital where you have to wait, to be seen by overworked understaffed health departments, who can’t treat you because they can’t afford the drugs that:

David Cameron and his millionaire mates in the cabinet will never have to be on a waiting list.

Their families and children will not have drugs refused because the GP can’t afford them.

They will never, not be able to see a doctor in an emergency.

They will never have to worry about their health.

All in it together, not now, not ever.

This is now the time to fight back and restore the NHS to its rightful place as universal free at point of access healthcare for everyone.

Next demo is outside Bristol BRI between 4pm and 6pm Thursday 22nd March.

Also contact BADACA to get involved in BRistol Anticuts movement.

The following outlines the real issues of the NHS bill, taken from Max Pembertons article here.

The role of the Secretary of State for Health

Until now, the health of the nation has ultimately been the responsibility of the government, with ministers directly accountable for providing or securing a comprehensive NHS. There are various parts of the Bill that either directly or indirectly alter this. Under the Bill, no single person and no single organisation will be responsible for meeting all the health care needs of all the people living in England or specifying the services to which they are entitled. A number of different bodies will have the power to determine the health care you can receive through the NHS.

Clinical Commissioning Groups and local authorities

The power to determine the services that make up the NHS will be transferred from the Secretary of State to newly created Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), which are unelected. Members will include GPs but also company chief executives who can, if they wish, outsource decisions about the appropriate level of services offered to companies with commercial interests. This is what the Government means when it says it is handing GPs £60 billion of NHS money. Services such as mental health provision, facilities for pregnant women, preventive medicine, aftercare and services for children could be substantially reduced by this power to save money, generate revenue or redirect patients into the for-profit sector. In addition, the government is planning to establish a parallel health service whereby some services, including screening, immunisation and vaccination will be handed to local authorities with the discretion to decide what will be provided, and to whom. This means that some services that were formerly free on the NHS may become chargeable, as under these changes, CCGs and local authorities will have the power to make unilateral decisions about what can and can’t be provided.

Monitor

Many of the Government’s current powers and responsibilities for health care will be handed over to an economic regulator known as Monitor. This quango is composed of unelected and unaccountable individuals. It will not have overarching responsibility – which the Government does currently – to ensure that everyone’s health needs are met. Instead, one of its main concerns is economic viability. It will have the power to decide, on purely financial grounds, if an area loses its existing range of hospital services, such as A&E departments, with no duty to consider alternative provision.

Patient care

With so many different providers of health care created under this Bill, those with complex health care needs may not receive the joined-up medical care that the NHS now works hard to provide. Also, providers will come and go over time, as services prove themselves to be viable revenue generators or not. This risks disruption and confusion for patients with a marked discontinuity of care. Less profitable patients – those requiring complex levels of care from multiple individuals and areas of expertise, for example – may be sidelined by these private companies.

The Risk Register

The Government has already conducted an assessment of the financial and public health risks of implementing this Bill in a document called the “Risk Register” but has so far refused to release this information for independent analysis. On November 2 2011, the Information Commissioner ruled that the Risk Register relating to the Bill should be released. The Government has refused and has launched an appeal against the decision, further fuelling suspicion as to what it contains.

Commissioning

Despite the political rhetoric, nowhere in the Bill does it actually state that GPs are required to do the commissioning or purchasing of services in the new market. In reality, it is likely that few will be able to show the necessary competence in the highly technical business of buying health care. Instead, the Bill allows CCGs to contract out commissioning functions to private accountancy, health insurance and management consultant firms, which will be able to decide what care is provided free at the point of use through the NHS and what is not. This means that profit-making companies will be able to provide your clinical care and also decide what you’re entitled to under the NHS and from which care providers. Companies will also design and set the care targets that doctors must meet. There is the potential for commercial conflicts when the needs of shareholders come between doctors and patients.

Community services, hospitals and private patients

Providers, too, can reduce levels of service provision and entitlement to NHS-funded care and there are no restrictions on charging for non-NHS care. The ''autonomy clause’’ in the Bill gives CCGs and providers extraordinary freedom. We have already seen some CCGs refuse operations for obese patients, despite national guidelines stating their obesity should not preclude them. The Bill also increases the current cap placed on hospitals regarding the amount of income they can generate from privately paying patients. Now, up to 49 per cent of income can be generated from private income. This means that almost half the beds currently used for NHS care could be given over to private patients. This could create a two-tier system in hospitals and drain resources, as well as create a conflict of interest, with hospitals having a clear incentive to encourage as many patients as possible to use the private half of their facilities. Moreover, hospitals can decide when to discharge patients. The requirement for coordinated discharge and aftercare of patients between health and social care is abolished in the Bill.

The Government has tried to silence critics of the Bill by claiming they are distorting or misrepresenting the legislation. But the points I’ve raised are in the detail of the Bill, there in black and white, for all to see. It might be that none of this concerns you – or you may be horrified. Whatever your political leanings, health status or experiences of the NHS, it is YOUR health service and I believe you have the right to be informed about what the proposals set out in this Bill will mean for the NHS. I think most people simply want a health care system that is there for them when they need it, that provides good, efficient service and that treats them with dignity and respect. They want a fair, just system that looks after everyone, regardless of their ability to pay or the complexity of their needs. I shall leave it to you to decide whether this Bill is safeguarding what has, until now, been the ruling principle of one our most valuable institutions – the NATIONAL Health Service.

Related Link: http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/703158