A letter from David Cameron - The NHS

Have you received your David Cameron letter yet? You know the one, everybody I have met in the last six months has got one, flashy NHS leaflet, photos of him rubbing shoulders with the doctors and nurses in the NHS, smiling with cheese, ending the letter with "I'll look forward to hearing from you soon", all very pleasant stuff. Except, and this is the give-away, the Conservative Party do not believe in the National Health Service.

Too cynical I hear you cry? Dave will "cut the deficit - not the NHS", the Tories will increase spending year on year. Dave wants a "world class NHS". Garbage, he might increase spending, but not for the NHS itself. Ill let Richard the blogger explain (and his blog has some outstanding, in-depth, detailed analysis of Tory Health proposals.)

"Whenever possible, we will ensure that national public health initiatives funded by public money are paid for on the basis of the results they achieve. … By paying organisations running national campaigns by the results they achieve, we can encourage such innovation and improve the value we get from the money spent on public health."

This is clearly indicating that a Conservative Government will franchise public health responsibilities to new private corporations: these are private super-nannies who will tell you what you should eat and drink: "public health initiatives funded by public money".

http://torylies.blogspot.com/2010/01/conservative-public-health-green-paper.html

The key wording is, as Richard quite rightly points out, public health initiatives. These will be private companies.

"PRIVATISATION AGENDA

The first thing that is extremely obvious is the Conservatives intend to have a much larger involvement of private suppliers in the NHS. The manifesto is littered with terms like "any willing provider", "choose any healthcare provider", "new independent and voluntary sector providers", "allow new providers" and "encouraging hospitals to compete for patients".

There we go, an old political trick, don't say the actual word 'privatisation', just use other double-speak phrases to mask your real intentions. Not a solely Tory practice, as we found with the spinning of Alastair Campbell et al, but is hugely significant in this mirror image of what the Conservative Party truly intend to do to the National Health Service.

I really do urge you to read the blog written by Richard, it is full of clear explanations about the intentions the Tories have regarding the 'world class' NHS Dave C so clearly loves.

http://torylies.blogspot.com/2010/01/conservative-public-health-green-paper.html

"The Conservatives originally promised an extra 45,000 single rooms at a cost of £1.5 billion, but on the 7 January when pressed on this figure David Cameron admitted that it was not achievable and said that it was simply an "aspiration". Here was Cameron admitting that the manifesto has at least one policy that could not be achieved, a Conservative lie

If we have learnt anything from the expenses scandal it is that the public want politicians to be honest and open. The fact that the "draft manifesto" includes policies that cannot be achieved shows that it is neither honest nor open.

CONCLUSION

There is very little of worth in the Conservative "draft manifesto" on health, but there is a lot to be worried about. First it shows the natural inclination in Cameron for centralising power, next it shows his zeal for privatisation and finally it shows dishonesty by claiming Labour policies as theirs and including unobtainable policies. It is clear that the only people who will benefit from these policies are the private healthcare providers. This is not a manifesto for the NHS it is a manifesto for private healthcare."