The NHS must evolve to survive, and adapt to improve.
The Labour Government has secured and transformed the future of our National Health Service with historic levels of funding and resources. The NHS has always been the Labour movement’s proudest achievement; it remains its great priority.
Improve our Hospitals: We don’t have to shout to make a difference
People of all political views have been extremely worried by the proposed health care re-organisation in West Sussex. They have given huge support to KWASH - the campaign founded by our Consultants in Worthing Hospital. But the noise of the campaign and the way that it has been associated with one political party has made the clinicians’ own voice less likely to be heard or accepted as non-partisan.
Behind-the-Scenes
Quietly, behind the scenes, with our parliamentary candidate Emily Benn, the local Labour Party has been meeting with the Consultants Group and the Primary Care Trust. We have encouraged the Consultants to submit their own excellent proposals to the PCT, and we have made sure that they have been passed through to government. The PCT is enthusiastic, as their proposals would make services more efficient and improve quality. In private, there has been broad agreement on the best way forward.
Special Interests.
But within the Health Service there are special interests that are trying, right now, to influence the review’s outcome: it is by no means certain that Worthing Hospital will retain the status that all the evidence shows it should have. In the absence of reasoned public debate, decisions risk being arrived at behind the scenes in a manner that is anything but transparent.
Do they care enough?
Will the Conservatives care enough about our local community to help create a non-partisan grouping to make sure that local needs are listened to and respected? They seem have already to have moved their attention onto to more ‘profitable’ electoral issues. But this issue is far from settled.