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The statement from the NHA Party reads as follows:
As Conservative health secretary Jeremy Hunt prepares to give his conference speech today (9thOctober), we should reflect that for generations the National Health Service (NHS) has cared for everyone according to need. When NHS patients and staff took centre stage at the London Olympics opening ceremony it highlighted its treasured place at the heart of our society. But commercialisation and increasing privatisation – policies being pushed through ever more rapidly by the Conservative-led coalition – are threatening the very survival of our much-loved health service. We’re launching a new political party, National Health Action (NHA), to stop the destruction of the NHS.
NHA’s website went live this week (w/c 8th October), and we want people from a wide range of backgrounds to join our party, to reflect the diversity of all who use the NHS and work in it.
The website is here.
Founded by a group of health professionals, our party strongly opposes the Health and Social Care Act. We believe the Act is wrecking the NHS in England by allowing it to be broken up and sold off. We intend to put up around 50 candidates in carefully chosen general election constituencies, and we will urge the Labour party to repeal the Act. We’ll also field candidates in local council elections.
Party co-leader and cancer specialist Dr Clive Peedell said: “For generations we’ve trusted the NHS to be a safety net for everyone in times of need. Putting the values of business and the markets ahead of those of patients and communities will ruin the NHS. This destruction is being fast-tracked by Tory and coalition policies. We hope our new party will halt this process.”
NHA co-leader Dr Richard Taylor is the former Independent MP for Wyre Forest. His victory in 2001 was based on a campaign to reopen accident and emergency services at Kidderminster General Hospital. He said: “We know the NHS and its values represent much of what’s best about the people of the UK. They realise instinctively that it’s only by supporting each other, particularly the most vulnerable, that we can hold onto our shared values of compassion and fairness.”
National Health Action: www.nationalhealthaction.org.uk
