Caroline Allen, the London Green Party number two candidate for the European elections spoke last night at a hustings event for Camden Keep Our NHS Public. Also present were Lucy Anderson from Labour, Dr Louise Irvine from the National Health Action Party as well as a representative from the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.
The Greens position on the NHS is clear.
We believe in a publicly owned and publicly funded NHS which is free at the point of use and available on the basis of need, not on the basis of ability to pay.
These are fundamental points of principles for us. Always have been and always will be.
It doesn’t depend on the whim of our leader or whether our health speaker has investments in companies who profit from privitised medical care.
This message was well received by an audience whose shared experiences had made them deeply concerned about the declining health of the NHS itself. The Health and Social Care Act has made such fundamental changes to how the NHS functions – pushing ahead with the drive towards greater privatisation. Combined with budget cuts, London’s NHS services are ‘unravelling’ as described in the People’s Inquiry/ Unite report.
The NHS as we know it is in a critical condition. Deeply wounded by the Labour Government and now with the fatal blows being dealt by the Tory and Lib Dem coalition.
The audience didn’t seem to have much time for the Labour candidate, Lucy Anderson, who was very apologetic for what Labour had done during their time in Government- setting privitisation going and creating massive debt through the madness of PFI. People weren’t convinced that Labour were about to change tack. Probably because – as many of the audience pointed out- the party leadership has not issued a single statement pledging their support for a publicly funded and publicly owned NHS. Neither have they said that they wouldn’t plough ahead with privatising the service.
In Camden residents have seen for themselves how the Labour Party created a broken system that allowed more than 4000 GP patients to be pushed from pillar to post, treated by locums and then abandoned, with the Council finding serious loopholes, lack of accountability and others finding very worrying statistics about their ability to diagnose serious medical conditions.
It was rather embarrassing that the Tory Councillor who turned up (quite bravely to be honest) and regaled us with stories of how great his experiences were in the private sector, hadn’t even heard of this issue!
The Whittington hospital may have been saved from large scale closures, but now it’s being slowly killed by a thousand cuts.
Greens have consistently worked to highlight the danger and damage of NHS privitisation. We are the anti-privitisation party. From the railways to energy and the Royal Mail we know that the promises of savings and efficiencies or better service never materialise and private profit always comes at the people’s expense.
Greens also believe in looking more deeply at the type of society we want.
We need to address the underlying fundamentals that are affecting people’s health, including mental health, the impacts of austerity, inequality, poor diet, air pollution, lack of exercise.
And there is a European aspect to this discussion too.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, is a dangerous threat to our NHS. Greens are the only group in the European election who have been consistently battling against this.
TTIP could see healthcare privitisation hard-wired into EU laws.
Labour seem to think they can negotiate various protections in TTIP, with little hope of success.
If you believe in democracy and the ability of national governments to bring in their own regulations, for example to improve public health, then you need to support the party looking to throw TTIP out.
Greens including your London Green MEP, Jean Lambert, have consistently worked against the creation of an internal market in health care.
To make a difference in the European Parliament you need to be part of a strong group. Greens work together in the 4th largest grouping and have a great record.
But make no mistake for this strong Green vote in Europe YOU need to vote Green. We need a London Green MEP and yet the rise in UKIP fuelled by a media love in means you could lose Jean Lambert, a passionate fighter for a social Europe, a defender of our rights to be replaced by a second UKIP MEP who will sell our NHS down the Thames.