Cameron speech on NHS reforms - UNISON response

Commenting on David Cameron’s speech on the Health and Social Care Bill, at Ealing Hospital, in London, today (16 May), Christina McAnea, Head of Health at UNISON, which represents more than 450,000 health workers, said:“David Cameron is taking the ‘national’ out of the health service and turning it into a fragmented, money-spinning operation. “The Prime Minister is using extreme examples to paint an untrue picture. He admits the NHS is providing the best service it has ever done, with reports saying it is the most efficient and equitable health system. “Cameron’s call to crack down on waste in the NHS is a smokescreen for a move to a wholesale market, which opens the NHS up to privatisation. The real waste is the time spent on the fatally flawed reforms, which will force NHS patients to the back of a very long queue.“He talks about having more choice and protecting budgets, but health workers are seeing their jobs axed and wards, services and even entire hospitals lost without any arrangements to protect continuity of patient care.“Plans to move to any willing or qualified provider will cause instability and waste and lead to less patient choice in the long term. The market approach will result in a huge hike in transaction costs and form-filling. The time that doctors and nurses should be spending on caring for patients will be diverted away to this type of administration and managers will spend more of their time making sure their practices are not anti-competitive, rather than trying to save the NHS money. “During the so-called Listening Exercise, the Prime Minister preferred the ravings of people like KPMG’s Mark Britnell, who wants to see a move away from a comprehensive service, over listening to the outcry among patients, public, staff, health experts, charities and health economists.“There is a huge risk involved in ploughing ahead with these drastic NHS changes, when we know it isn’t necessary. The Government must concentrate on dropping this deadweight Bill.”