Resolution passed at Labour Party Conference 2012
Conference believes the NHS is a cherished institution which epitomises core British values of equality and fairness for all, people appreciate the role it plays in ensuring that no matter who you are, or how much money you have, your right to decent health is a given. Conference notes that the NHS is in crisis due to fragmentation and cuts and a threat of privatisation. Conference welcomes the commitment to repeal the Health and Social Care Act that has exacerbated the free market free for all,
Conference condemns the 20 South West Trusts pushing for regional pay. Conference condemns privatisation and notes that ASE Units around the country are threatened with closure. Conference also notes that South London Healthcare Trusts is being put into administration.
Conference calls on the next Labour Government to restore the Secretary of State’s duty to provide comprehensive healthcare, stop this Government’s privatisation and liberate the NHS from extortionate PFI charges, Conference urges all sections of the Party to work with health unions, the medical and other health professions and NHS supporters to campaign against privatisation, cuts and closures and to restore the principle of a publicly owned, publicly provided and publicly accountable NHS funded by progressive taxation and delivering care on the basis of need and not ability to pay.
Conference urges all sections of the Party to work to ensure decent, national wages, pensions and conditions for those working for the NHS. Conference notes the decision to declare the South London Healthcare Trust an “Unsustainable Provider” and to appoint a Trust Special Administrator (TSA) to take over its management.
Conference believes the Labour Party should re-assert this commitment: our fundamental purpose is simple but hugely important – to restore the NHS as a public service working co-operatively for patients, not a commercial business driven by competition, to re-assure the public that we share their values, and will maintain a publicly funded, comprehensive health service, free to all who need it at the point of delivery.
Moved: Kingston upon Hull North CLP Seconded: Greenwich and Woolwich CLP