Letter: Birtwistle Beggars Belief...

It really does beggar belief that our MP, Gordon Birtwistle has voted in the House of Commons to support the Tories reorganisation of the NHS.  This is the biggest reorganisation in the history of the NHS and is in itself going to cost a staggering 3 billion pound.

What does all this mean and what’s in it for Burnley? Well let’s be clear this costly reorganisation, will introduce at least 5 new tiers of bureaucracy. Many of us think there is too much bureaucracy already. Under the new proposals we will have a: a National Commissioning Board, Clinical Senates, Public Health England, Health Watch England, Health Education England, Clinical commissioning groups to mention but a few. 

Under current arrangements NHS hospitals are allowed to treat private patients and provide private beds but these numbers are strictly controlled. The bill which will become law, if Gordon Birtwistle has his way, will remove the cap on the number of private patients that can be treated at Burnley General and allow them and other NHS hospitals to take as many private patients as they want. As hospitals cope with reduced budgets they will be forced to take an ever increasing amount of private patients. This will of course be at the expense of NHS treatment and queues for treatment on the NHS will escalate, leaving those who can afford no choice, but to seek private treatment and the majority who can’t afford left to suffer. I haven’t forgotten that the last time the Conservatives were in power cancer patients regularly waited for more than 6 months for treatment.

Right at the heart of the bill is a desire to turn the NHS into a market place where private companies and their share holders benefit at the expense of patients. Funds desperately needed by the NHS for patient care will be given in profits to private companies. How will putting profits before patients help anyone in Burnley?

Under the proposals GPs will have a new role: they will be in charge of commissioning treatments for patients. They will be forced to administer a reduced budget and will spend a disproportionate amount of their time sourcing competitively priced treatments. Gordon Birtwistle seems to have got the idea that this will in some way lead to more local accountability and therefore the return of A&E to Burnley General Hospital.  The reality is that GPs will be accountable to the commissioning boards and through them the national commissioning board. The top priority will be getting the cheapest service provider and if Burnley General Hospital is unable to compete with private companies, far from returning A&E and other services to Burnley there is every likelihood that Burnley General Hospital will lack economic viability and will be forced to close completely.

It is for all these reasons that I oppose the bill and I am not alone in my opposition: The British Medical Association representing doctors is opposed to the bill because it believes that the proposals are damaging to the NHS. The Royal College of Nurses and the Royal College of Midwives are also opposed to bill. At the moment the Conservatives in Government backed by the Liberal Democrats are riding rough shod over the views of the professionals. It is not surprising to get this from the Conservatives because they have never supported the principles of a National Health Service that provides free, unlimited healthcare based on need rather than the ability to pay.  This legislation that they have put forward in the form of the Health and Social Care bill is designed to weaken the NHS and open the door for private health companies.  They can of course only succeed in this because they have the support of the Lib Dems. The Lib Dems seem more concerned to co-operate with their Tory friends than to stand up for the people who elected them. This issue was discussed at length recently in Burnley Council and readers might be interested to know that their Liberal Democratic Councillors, all voted to support the Conservative plans.

This is to date Gordon Birtwistle’s biggest betrayal of the people of Burnley and Padiham.