STARMER HAS GOT IT WRONG ON THE NHS

The following letter by Godfrey Jennings, a SONHSL supporter, was published in the Leicester Mercury on January 16 2025:

Keir Starmer’s speech on 5 January outlining the government’s strategy for
addressing waiting lists is wrong-headed. Targeting a 20% increase in the use
of the private sector to cut waiting lists risks further embedding profit-takers
into the health service.

Starmer says that he is “not interested in putting ideology before patients”, yet
that is exactly what he is doing. It is the ideology of the private operators who
will receive an extra £2.5 billion a year in government funding under his new
elective reform plan to address waiting lists for planned care.

There is very little evidence that pumping money into profit-making companies
is going to reduce waiting times.

Indeed, this approach was used by the Conservative government’s Elective
Recovery Plan in February 2022, yet waiting lists continued to grow.

The country voted for change in July 2024, not more of the same, but when it
comes to the NHS it is clear that the neo-liberal belief in the market continues
to be pursued by a Labour government.

Hospitals are crumbling while the NHS is haemorrhaging at least £10m a week
to private shareholder profits – money which could build a new operating
theatre every week.

The NHS is Labour’s greatest achievement – focussing on improving just one
metric will not work if the government is unprepared to tackle the recruitment
and retention crisis and defend it from rapacious corporate interests.

New investment needs to carefully targeted – too often in the past extra
spending for new NHS initiatives has disappeared into the pockets of the
private sector without any real benefit to patients.

Without proper investment in staff there can be no world-class NHS, no
improvements in patient care, reduction in the backlog or increased efficiency
of services.