Marching to Save the NHS, photo Paul Mattsson

Marching to Save the NHS, photo Paul Mattsson   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Karen Seymour, Mansfield Socialist Party

The people of Mansfield in Nottinghamshire have learned that the company running the primary care centre at King’s Mill Hospital has gone bust, with redundancies to follow.

Sadly, this is what happens when private providers are brought in to care for us. Health workers deliver fantastic care day after day, under huge stress and strain. It is perhaps not hard to see why there is such a high turnover of staff in such a pressured environment. Inevitably, the cost of agency staff has skyrocketed and that seems to have happened in this case.

We should all be concerned about who provides our healthcare because when private providers are brought in, it is certain that corners will be cut.

Investment

It is not overspending in the NHS that has brought it to crisis point, but a lack of investment over many years.

Plus the hugely expensive Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deals that were approved by Labour and Tory governments alike. King’s Mill alone is in debt to the tune of £2 billion because of PFI.

The junior doctors and most of us understand the government’s real aim is to privatise the NHS by stealth, selling it to their big business cronies ‘on the cheap’. If we do not fight for it, we will end up with a US-style system, where those who cannot afford healthcare go without it.

Our health, and that of our families and friends, is too important to be left in the hands of those who only want to make profits.


Note: Corrections were made to the online version of this article on 23.6.16