In early July, the New Labour government placed an advert ("a
contract notice") in the official journal of the European Union
inviting big business to apply to run primary care trusts.
Primary care trusts control the majority of the spending of the NHS.
Major international health care companies would love to get their hands
on this £64 billion budget. If they could obtain direct control,
it would lead even greater privatisation of the NHS. They would be strategically
placed to award contacts to their private sector mates.
The advert was placed in secrecy - health unions, MPs and even Trust
chief executives were kept in the dark. The campaigning group "Keep
Our NHS Public" publicised the plan and, facing fierce criticism
from the unions, the government backed down. The advert was withdrawn
following the sudden discovery of "drafting errors".
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt now claims that there is "no question
whatsoever of privatising the NHS". The New Labour agenda is absolutely
clear however. Blair and Hewitt recently called together chief executives
from the 15 Foundation Hospitals and the directors of FTSE 100 companies
including Unilever, Glaxo Smith Kline Beecham, Tesco and Cable and Wireless
to push their message that it is time to "break the notion"
that public and private sectors had "contradictory value systems".
Unison members passed a motion calling for a national day of action
at their recent health conference. There have been dozens of demonstrations
in defence of the NHS in recent months. The TUC has a responsibilty
to bring together local campaigners and activists in all the health
unions.
A national day of action isn’t enough. A national one day health
strike, with the support of all trade unionists, against the cuts and
against privatisation is required. If the TUC aren’t prepared
to take a lead, individual unions, union branches and local campaign
groups must come together in defence of our health service.
