Save Our Services

New Labour = War, Cuts And Privatisation

THE CHAIRMAN of South West Oxfordshire NHS primary care trust (PCT), Martin Avis, has lost his job.

His crime - to dare to oppose New Labour's latest plans to sell off our NHS.

When, in a Radio 4 interview, the NHS Chief Executive, Sir Nigel Crisp, was asked to explain why individuals like Mr Avis "feared for their jobs", he replied by walking out halfway through the broadcast!

No doubt Sir Nigel is terrified that the full extent of New Labour's bullying will be revealed.

The Department of Health have been hell-bent on forcing local NHS trusts to sign contracts with Netcare - a private South African healthcare company - to carry out cataract operations.

Mr Avis dared to object, arguing that the NHS Oxford Eye hospital could do the work just as quickly at a lower cost.

Leaked memo

This wasn't news to the government.

A leaked Department of Health memo has revealed that the government knows that each cataract operation carried out by Netcare will cost Ł115 more than it does on the NHS, not least because the surgeons performing it will be paid Ł500,000 a year!

New Labour's NHS policy isn't about saving money. After all, the government is spending Ł4.2 million a day on the occupation of Iraq. The money spent on war and occupation so far could have built five new hospitals!

This is about privatisation and the profits of big business. The NHS was one of the great achievements of the 1945 Labour government. But New Labour today is just one more big-business party. The policies of all three major parties are to systematically destroy the NHS and all our public services by handing them over to private companies.

The Socialist Party is standing in the elections on a programme of opposition to privatisation and for money to be spent on public services, not war and occupation.

We are campaigning for the building of a new party that can bring together socialists, trade unionists and all those opposed to privatisation and war.

If you agree with our programme vote for a socialist alternative on 10 June. But don't leave it there. Join us and fight for a better future.