13th October 2006

Brian Hughes' colourful attack on the Green party for opposing private sector involvement in our NHS shows a deep misunderstanding of his own party's assault on our health services (letters 12/10/06).

Brian Hughes suggests interest payments on loans by Government are the same as profits made by shareholders. Nonsense. Governments can borrow money at lower rates and don't have to make profits for shareholders. He also argues that GPs are self-employed but he fails to note that those contracts were with the government. Under the new system, doctors’ contracts will be with the commercial sector. This is a completely different story.

Health care is not a commodity to be bought and sold. The massive profits being made out of our health service are wrong. In Norwich venture capitalists pocketed an extra £81 million in profits from the £220 million PFI scheme to build a hospital! Billions more are being diverted into a new, expanding private network of profit-seeking 'Independent Sector Treatment Centres' (ISTC), which are paid at enhanced rates, and select out the profitable treatments and patients, leaving the unprofitable behind in the NHS.

The Citizen has already highlighted concerns about this very issue from Paul Lilley, chief executive of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He says the ISTCs at Lydney and Cirencester will cream off the profitable operations, leaving Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General to fund the more difficult surgery cases. He describes this as "very bad news" as it will impact directly on abilities to cover emergency surgery costs (3/10/06).

Labour, Tories and Lib Dems are wrong. We need to end costly private finance schemes and NHS privatisation and instead invest in quality local services.

Cllr. Philip Booth, Stroud District Green Party.

Update: Greens passed policy at their recent conference calling for employers using NHS trained staff to pay a levy towards the cost of their training. This unique approach is one in a range of many policies aimed at stopping the erosion of our NHS.