Pray for the NHS if either Labour OR the Tories form a government next year
If Keir Starmer’s party wanted its conference to exude confidence for the future of the National Health Service, it failed at the first hurdle when an NHS campaigner was kicked out on the first day:
Labour remove an NHS campaigner from their conference hall because he made a speech calling for an end to privatisation. pic.twitter.com/8ipyppIvKo
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) October 8, 2023
He appeared to be talking about Keir Starmer and the party’s ruling National Executive Committee, who overturned a democratic decision of the Conference Arrangements Committee:
NEC officers overturned the merging of health structures and NHS agreed by the CAC, which would likely have resulted in both health structures and NHS being debated at conference – this has now been overturned in an unprecedented move by the NEC officers last Monday.
— Jess Barnard (@JessicaLBarnard) October 7, 2023
It seems Starmer demanded this in order to avoid conference holding a debate on NHS structures and privatisation:
Labour Conference: Starmer in unprecedented stitch-up to avoid losing debate on NHS funding and privatisation
In a Conference first, the NEC, dominated by the leader’s supporters, overturned a key decisions of the Conference Arrangements Committee.https://t.co/IRedwGtKs6— Labour Hub (@LabourHub) October 8, 2023
The party leadership is likely to have lost any such debate.
(Personally, This Writer can’t see what all the fuss is about. Conference delegates have already voted to renationalise energy providers but Starmer has overruled this sovereign decision unilaterally, saying it won’t be in his party’s general election manifesto. Let’s remember that!)
There’s worse:
Apparently the big idea to improve waiting times is to offer already-overworked doctors and nurses overtime to work in the evenings and at weekends, while improving diagnoses with new technology:
Without offering NHS staff decent pay rises and without recruiting many more people to avoid the very real risk of burnout this is just meaningless talk, not least because diagnoses without the means to follow up solves nothing. https://t.co/6zf6u5gFHV
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) October 8, 2023
It’s reported Labour plans 2 million extra NHS appointments a year by offering staff overtime to work evening & weekend shifts. What am I missing? NHS staff are overworked now – would this even be safe & what about a proper pay rise for doctors & nurses?https://t.co/MhiHqw2Hvx
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) October 8, 2023
For the record: Starmer has no intention of recruiting more staff from the most obvious place:
The UK is recruiting too many people from overseas into the NHS, Sir Keir Starmer says https://t.co/3fsEgnw5XC
— BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) November 6, 2022
And diagnostics is only part of the NHS’s job; without proper treatment, more effective, expedited diagnoses won’t make much of a difference.
Meanwhile, the Tories have put some clear blue (English Channel?) water between them and Starmer’s party by saying they will hire doctors from abroad – to break strikes brought by NHS doctors. This would set a toxic precedent for industrial relations in all UK sectors:
Having failed to break our NHS doctors with its lies, bullying & intimidation the Government now resorts to this. It simply won’t work because our NHS heroes have a courage & determination & a love & respect from the public which @SteveBarclay could never understand pic.twitter.com/QZX66zdJHz
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) October 7, 2023
It seems clear that the NHS is not safe with either of these political parties.
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