Reading Labour Party members were out in force on Saturday to talk to shoppers about the Conservative/LibDem plans for the National Health Service, and to ask them to sign a petition in a last-ditch attempt to stop the plans going through.
They found widespread support for their campaign. 171 people signed the petition at Battle Library – Chris Maskell says “business was brisk and some people almost snatched the pen out of my hand in their eagerness to sign”. And Councillors Bet Tickner and Matt Rodda, who organised the campaign, say there was the same level of concern at Cemetery Junction and in Whitley Street, Christchurch Road, Coley Park and at Caversham’s shopping precinct.
Labour believes the Health & Social Care Bill will undermine the cherished values of the NHS – as a service which is free at the point of use and open to all on the basis of need, and will lead to a postcode lottery – where residents will receive different treatments if they live on different sides of the street, the creeping privatisation of health care which could undermine the Royal Berks, and pressure on NHS hospitals to take on private patients and let them jump the queue.
And, they say, the proposals set out in the Bill are set to cost £25 million locally and £3.5 billion across the country, which is almost twice as much as the Government predicted. This sort of waste can never be justified – particularly at a time of public spending cuts.
Cllr. Tickner adds: “This Bill is opposed by the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing, the health unions, the Patients’ Association, the list goes on. We have shown today it is opposed by the general public in Reading, and I am sure it is the same elsewhere. We need to look to our MPs to do the right thing and tell David Cameron to drop this Bill, to drop it before Christmas. All we want for Christmas, Mr Cameron, is our NHS.”
|
