Labour's NHS Bill: not good enough

Submitted by AWL on 11 November, 2014 - 6:29 Author: Jill Mountford, Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign, personal capacity.

After months of speculation and vague promises Labour's Clive Efford MP has published his NHS (Amended Duties and Powers) Private Members Bill.

Was it worth waiting for? With the political limits of the Labour Party and the practical limits of what a Private Members Bill can achieve it was never going to repeal the 2012 Health and Social Care Act , nor reverse the cuts and privatisation of the NHS. But the Bill does tackle some of the worst bits of the Health and Social Care Act.

Backed by the Labour leadership and supported by Unite, Unison and the GMB leaders, it’s an attempt to show Labour mean to restore bits of the NHS without committing to any spending and without challenging of the crippling PFI debts accumulated by hospital trusts under New Labour.

The Bill would restore the powers of the Secretary of State for Health, repeal Section 75 and make changes to the role of Monitor. It stops any UK government agreeing to any legally enforceable procurement or competition provisions for the NHS in the current Transatlanic Trade and Investment Partnership treaty negotiations. Section 4 of the bill it deals with “Provision of high security psychiatric services”. Any victories on these points would be a very good start to restoring the NHS.

But the Bill needs to gather some cross-party support and none of the sponsors come from any party other than Labour. In the run up to second reading on 21 November the unions are organising town-centre street stalls to tell people about the Bill and Labour’s commitment to the NHS. But this is a really tepid, half-baked approach to campaigning.

There’s speculation in some quarters that the Bill could be amended to include more radical and far reaching demands. Some of the demands in Allyson Pollock’s NHS Reinstatement Bill which she and others are campaigning for Labour to commit to could be incorporated. But these are big ifs and as it stands, the Bill does not go far enough and doesn’t stand much of chance of becoming law.

On 21 November campaigners will be outside Parliament encouraging support for the Bill but more importantly raising our own independent demands for the NHS. Repeal of the Health and Social Care is top of the list, followed closely by calls for the reversal of cuts and a massive cash injection to meet growing healthcare needs; removal of the PFI burden on the NHS an end to privatisation and the market in the NHS; a decent living wage for NHS workers; a guarantee of safe staffing levels; an end to blaming migrants for the NHS crisis. After the protest there will be a meeting inside to discuss how we can organise to win our demands. Clive Efford and Andy Burnham are among invited speakers.

Join us outside Parliament and come along to the meeting at 2pm in the House of Commons. Join the fight to save our NHS!

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