As a Mother primarily, but also as a doctor who has worked in the NHS for about 10 years, I hope you understand when I say I am worried about these changes and what they could mean for everyone. Just tonight on the TV there was a report about children who need braces for their teeth in Northern Ireland will now have that care rationed to only very bad cases - based on a set of rules written up to ration that care. Children in the rest of the UK would continue to get braces with milder teeth problems ITS NOT FAIR just screamed through me.
With the passing of the Health Bill as early as This February- if nothing is done to stop it, this will become the norm for pretty much all health care.
The wording of the document is so complex its feared that work traditionally the role of Public Health (which is to be shifted to Local Authority) like Breast Feeding support, Active kidz, MEND etc will become Means Tested. At the moment the Bill is very vague about immunisations and who should do them. There are a load more inadequacies as a result of it being rushed through.
This is wholly unfair because if you cast your mind back to the election manifestos non of the parties said they would alter the NHS but that's exactly what's being done- that alone should be brought to order.
This is not the time or place to say how lousy the NHS is, or how private care is so much better, that's a story for another day. Even saying the NHS needs a restructure is for later on, it needs to be made more efficient but the Bill wont make this happen. £1.7 billion on restructuring the NHS and replacing it by an untried system seems the height of folly. We need to oppose this bill vigorously.
I will include links to the work that other people have done, that I have read that convince me that the Health Bill will have a horrible impact on the care of our children, our parents, ourselves, now and in the future.
www.keepournhspublic.com/index.php
bevansrun.blogspot.com
abetternhs.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/questions/
Although I am sometimes a doctor I am mostly a mum and I hope other mums will help me with this really important issue. ( And if it helps to convince you Rio Ferdinand has signed it and is urging everyone else to too!)
Thank you!