Email to MP re plans for NHS

Here's an email I sent my MP, for all the good it will do. She's a LibDem minister so she'll most likely just toe the party line.



From: Curtis David (East London NHS Foundation Trust)

Sent: 27 December 2010 17:28

To: 'Lynne Featherstone - Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey & Wood Green'

Subject: Government plans for the NHS



Dear Ms Featherstone.



I am writing to express my extreme concern at the government's plans for the NHS.



The major reorganization proposed has not been properly thought through. The very process of reorganization will certainly strain the NHS in the short term and is being carried out at a time when the NHS is under extreme pressure for other reasons. It breaks the pledge which the Conservatives made not to subject the NHS to new reorganizations.



The eventual outcome of the reorganization is quite likely to be deleterious for the NHS. There is no reason why GPs are likely to do a better job of commissioning than professional commissioners. It is inevitable that a postcode lottery will be introduced. GPs will be put in the position of rationing care for their patients whereas previously they were advocates for their patients. The patients' trust of doctors will be undermined. Cynically, it looks as though GPs are going to be expected to take the blame for deficiencies in provision which will be outside their control.



There is no reason to suppose that the reorganization will lead to a more cost effective or equitable NHS.



The overall lack of sufficient funding for the NHS is sure to cause problems for both patients, who will certainly receive a poorer service, and for staff, who will be blamed for problems at the same time as they face calls for pay restraint and uncertainty about their own future employment. The effects of restrictions on funding the NHS will be greatly exacerbated by the simultaneous cuts to social service provision.



The increasing privatization of the NHS is very worrying. This is occurring at the same time as medical students will have to start paying large tuition fees. This will contribute to a commercialization of medicine in Britain so that doctors of the future will no longer feel an obligation to repay their debt to society but will be more interested in repaying their own debts and will be more keen to be remunerated at a market rate. This move towards privatization will make the provision of healthcare in Britain more expensive and less equitable.



Given your position and your previous track record I have no expectation that you will do anything to address my concerns, which are similar to those expressed elsewhere by people far more knowledgeable than me, but I thought I would nevertheless put them on record.



Your sincerely



David Curtis

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