To: SOUTHAMPTON CITY COUNCIL
DEFEND THE NHS PETITION
Government changes to the NHS give the Council increased responsibilities to safeguard public health. These changes provide a base for further privatisation of health services within our NHS. Already private companies are heavily involved in delivering health services that were once NHS operated. As residents of Southampton, we urge the Council to declare itself in favour of protecting and promoting the public provision of health services in Southampton.
Why is this important?
Under government changes to the NHS, local Councils have become responsible for certain health services, and for overall scrutiny of others. We people of Southampton are therefore calling on Southampton City Council to defend our public NHS from the invasion of private services. Please note that for the Southampton City Council to view a signature as valid, the signer should either live, study or work in the area of Southampton City Council.
For most of our lifetimes, the NHS has been a public service giving free healthcare whenever we needed it. Now it is being broken up and privatised piecemeal under government reforms.
Already in Southampton over a dozen private companies are competing for contracts to provide health services. This will fragment the NHS and make it more difficult to provide joined-up treatment for patients.
Private providers have shareholders to please so they will tend to think about putting profits before patient care. Their contracts are not made public because of commercial confidentiality. All providers, even those who already work with the NHS, now have to tender competitively for contracts. Not only is this an expensive process which will be easier for large companies with big budgets, but also it will waste money that could have gone on patient care.
How it will be delivered
We plan to send a delegation to the City Council's meeting in March who will deliver the results and those we are collecting on paper from people who do not use the internet.
