Michael Meacher MP

The  Tory NHS plan, to be unveiled on Monday in a White Paper, is essentially the next corporatist stage in the dismantling of the founding NHS principles of efficiency, integration, universality, and careful need-based planning.   The original commercialisation of the NHS was initiated by New Labour under Blair with the establishment of independent foundation trusts, the continuation of the Tory split between the commissioning and provision of health care, the marketising of specific NHS services, and the encouragement of the private sector through independent treatment centres and other subsidised schemes.

The issue now is whether any political party is sufficiently committed to the genuine principles of the NHS to rally a massive campaign to fight vigorously for them, given that Labour has been so deeply compromised by the Blair years.   For nothing less is at issue than whether a universal health care system free at the point of use is going to survive. (more…)