This campaign is being created to both show solidarity with those already protesting against the Bill in England, and to highlight the direct and indirect impact that the Bill will have upon Wales.
The Bill, which will lead to the gradual break-up and privatisation of the English NHS, already contains measures to abolish important NHS Bodies such as the National Patient Safety Agency and the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator, which currently operate on an England and Wales basis, replacement of which will entail direct cost implications for the Welsh Government. Even more importantly, the Bill will have grave implications for the provision and cost of specialist care which is currently provided for Welsh NHS patients in English centres of excellence, such as paediatric services at Alder Hey or renal care in Birmingham. How such services will be provided on a cross border basis, as English GPs take responsibility for commissioning of all such care in England, remains entirely unclear. For Welsh patients in border areas, primary care services may also be profoundly affected.
For clinical and support staff in the English NHS the changes will be equally dramatic, with terms and conditions set to vary right across the Service, as local commissioners are given the discretion to vary pay and other allowances according to local whim. These changes will, in turn, have significant, unpredictable implications for Welsh NHS workers.
Lastly, we believe that the NHS, born out of Wales and Aneurin Bevan’s inspiration by the Tredegar Medical Aid Society, is a vital, civilising aspect of our society, reflective of Labour’s values of mutual support and social solidarity. Devolution and the Welsh Labour Government may mean that we in Wales are insulated from the worst impacts of the Tories’ ideological reforms in England, but that should not in any way deter us from expressing our deep disagreement with the measures proposed and our support for English Labour colleagues, NHS workers, clinicians and citizens who are campaigning against their adoption.
