I joined Socialist Health Association to campaign for renationalisation of the health service, and to campaign to ensure this is enshrined in Labour Party policy. I believe that a fully socialist health system, which is funded through taxation, is both the right thing to do for society, and also the most economically efficient way of delivering healthcare. I am opposed to the privatisation that has been brought into the NHS, especially following the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and creation of the CCGs, and support the NHS Reinstatement Bill.
I have had the privilege to work in a few different health systems, as a doctor myself. After completing my medical studies in Dublin, Ireland, I then worked as a junior doctor in the UK before spending 2 years working in a rural government hospital on the South African border with Swaziland. I’m now back in the UK completing my GP training in Liverpool.
I have seen the detrimental effect of commissioning of more and more independent/private sector services in the community with associated loss of previously public services staffed by highly trained NHS staff, and strongly oppose the Sustainability and Transformation Plans, and downgrading of A&Es.
I would like Labour Party health policy to reflect not only a renationalisation of the NHS, but incorporating GP surgeries into the NHS as per Nye Bevan’s original vision. Let’s aim high- not only to grab back the remnants of the public system that were there before, but to rebuild it and go beyond it’s original scope, to have a public healthcare system that can be emulated worldwide, providing healthcare to everyone according to their needs.