Jamie Speka, West London Socialist Party
Lord Ara Darzi’s recommendation of NHS reforms, as laid out in his September report, conveniently omitted an “oversight” in not disclosing over $1 million in shareholdings from US-based private healthcare companies. It could be interpreted as just an oversight, comparable to Labour’s lack of transparency surrounding freebies which was, of course, also an oversight. Whichever way one slices it, a conflict of interest was involved – either blatantly or mistakenly.
The report’s findings of the NHS crisis have been used by health secretary Wes Streeting to justify abolishing NHS England, despite the report recommending no such top-down reorganisation.
More privatisation
Responding to Darzi’s report, Labour said it would direct resources back to frontline workers and end bureaucracy. In fact, Labour plans more privatisation for profit.
Lawyers for Lord Darzi told The Guardian: “Before accepting the appointment…our client disclosed his personal interests to [Streeting] (by sharing his House of Lords register of interests) and took a leave of absence from his position at Flagship while he was undertaking the NHS investigation and was not paid during this time. This was entirely at our client’s own behest and specifically to ensure that there could be no perceived conflict of interest.”
If you’re one of those opposed to Labour’s private sector fawning, then Streeting has dubbed you a “middle-class lefty”. Labour’s mission to mitigate bureaucracy, bring forth more funds to frontline workers, and optimise staff engagement won’t be solved by redirecting more funds to the same private healthcare interests that have donated to Wes Streeting and that Lord Darzi is embroiled in.
What is needed is a bottom-up reorganisation, prioritising the democratic involvement of workers and service users, removing the internal market and privatisation, and fully funding our NHS by making the super-rich pay.
