Caroline is calling on MPs to back her cross party NHS Reinstatement Bill which comes to the House of Commons on Friday. [1]

Ask your MP to back to the bill: https://speakout.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns/685

The bill was supported by Jeremy Corbyn before he became leader, and it is being backed in Parliament by the Scottish National Party and many individual MPs. The Labour Party has not yet made a public statement on it, but they are under pressure from health unions, grassroots NHS campaigns and tens of thousands of people who have emailed MPs asking them to back to the bill [2].

To guarantee that the NHS Reinstatement Bill is heard 100 MPs must be present in Parliament to bring about a vote on the Bill being debated before. [3]

Caroline, who tabled the cross-party NHS Reinstatement Bill, said:

“This Friday MPs have a chance to show their commitment to our NHS. The NHS needs Labour to back this Bill. It’s the best chance we’ve got to bring people’s anger about what’s happening to our NHS into Parliament – and to then move towards reversing the failed privatisation experiment.

“Across the country we’re seeing people making a stand against the ongoing marketization of our health service. The NHS is saddled with a wasteful internal market, and increasingly widespread outsourcing of services to the private sector. When you add this privatisation to the near-constant Government attacks on the NHS workforce, including forcing junior doctors to strike again today, you can see why so many people are supporting the NHS Bill.

“The NHS bill would put the public back at the heart of the health service. MPs now have a chance to put their commitment to a public NHS into action by backing this bill on 11 March.

“If we work together we can save our crisis ridden health service for future generations”

This NHS Reinstatement Bill would reverse the creeping marketisation of the health service and reinstate the NHS based on its founding principles – putting the public back at the heart of the health service. In practical terms that means simplifying the health service and removing the unnecessary complication introduced in 1991 (and reinforced in recent years) which fragmented the NHS by forcing services to go into competition with each other to win contracts.

The Bill would bring back health boards who would look at what services are needed in each local area and then provide them. The Bill also reinstates the Health Secretary’s duty to provide services throughout England - which was severed in the 2012 Health and Social Care Act.

ENDS

Contact: Matthew Butcher on 07885 459 904 or clucasmedia@parliament.uk

[1] Details of the NHS Bill: http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/nationalhealthservice.html 

[2] The BMA has backed the Bill, as has the Socialist Health Association:https://labournhslobby.wordpress.com/2016/03/06/labournhsbill/

Tens of thousands of people have urged their MP to stay in Parliament this week to debate the NHS Reinstatement Bill. The online action was organized by 38 Degrees:https://speakout.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns/685

[3] Description of a closure motion: http://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/closure-motion/

The Bill before has been tabled by Peter Bone MP.