Star date: 7th September 2016

SALFORD JOINS JEREMY HUNT NHS EXPO PROTEST

This afternoon, Tory Health secretary Jeremy Hunt was met by protests as he arrived at the `Health and Care Innovation Expo' at Manchester Central Convention Complex.

"I've come down to let Mr Hunt know that I'm not very happy about his proposals regarding the NHS" said Salford resident Mike Kelly "I think he's a hit man, here to privatise the NHS and I object to that. I think what we're seeing at the moment with the junior doctors and the nurses' bursaries is the thin end of the wedge..."

Full details here...

The official figures for health care in Greater Manchester are absolutely frightening, with a projected `financial challenge' of £2billion forecast for 2020/21. Salford Royal NHS Trust is forecasting a deficit of £14.9million this year*. Everyone in the establishment health world is talking of `reform' and massive cuts.

Today, Tory Government Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, and Simon Stevens, Chief Exec of NHS England, rode into Manchester to attend the Health and Care Innovation Expo at Manchester Central Convention Complex...and both were left in no doubt about local feeling as campaigners from Keep Our NHS Public, the People's Assembly and more chanted...`No ifs, no buts, no NHS cuts!'

At the NHS Expo, one session included Howard Bernstein, Chief Exec of Manchester City Council, talking of Sustainability and Transformation Plans under Greater Manchester health devolution...

...But delegates going into the Convention Centre were handed leaflets titled Beware NHS Transformation stating that areas were being urged to develop a Sustainability and Transformation Plan, or STP, which would `impose savage cuts on the NHS', `implement new models of care that are untested and potentially unsafe, relying on family carers' and would `Sell off NHS land and property'...

...`It will greatly increase NHS privatisation, involving private companies in planning, commissioning and delivering new models of services' the leaflet insisted...

"I'm here because Jeremy Hunt is intent on privatising our NHS" explained Terry Tallis from Stockport NHS Watch "He wrote a book not long ago in which he described the NHS as unfit for purpose, an anachronism in the 21st Century. He has stated his clear objective, to switch to a privatised insurance-based system like they have in America.

"Simon Stevens' latest disorganisation is these STPs" she added "In reality they are nicely little packaged up areas that will be absolutely ripe for the picking when things start to go belly up...as they surely will because Jeremy Hunt and the Government have decided to underfund the NHS and bring it to its knees. That's when the private companies will march in and say `The only way we can provide a sustainable health service is through the private sector'.

"Stevens used to be head of United Health in America, a massive private healthcare company and knows exactly what he's doing" she said "And at least seven people in the current Government have interests in private health companies. No-one voted for this. This is our NHS. These people have to decided to take it off us and sell it to their friends. But that's only going to happen over my dead body."

Her sentiments were underlined by Peter Quigley, from Salford who retired as a nurse at North Manchester General Hospital last year...

"It's like two worlds" he explained "One where everything is fantastic and then the reality, where everything is in terms of cost effectiveness and not enough staff. There was no slack in the system; it just needed one thing to go wrong and people were really struggling. Everything is kind of cloaked in doublespeak.

"As a nurse it's meant to be caring and professional but nurses haven't got time to provide the care that they want to give because of the economics and practicalities" he added "There isn't the money there, as much as the Government may argue its case. They've done it by stealth."

Meanwhile, Mike Kelly, from Salford, summed up the mood...

"I've come down to let Mr Hunt know that I'm not very happy about his proposals regarding the NHS" he said "I think he's a hit man, here to privatise the NHS and I object to that. I think what we're seeing at the moment with the junior doctors and the nurses' bursaries** is the thin end of the wedge... It's just going to go on and on and on. It's not good for the people, for patients or staff working in the NHS..."

See also previous Salford Star articles...

*The Cost and Cuts of Salford Together integrated care organisation run by Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust – click here

**After Tory Government Attacks Junior Doctors, it's Trainee Nurses and Midwives Next – click here

For more information on Keep Our NHS Public – click here