Bevan would be spinning in his grave

By Jeremy Corbyn / @JeremyCorbyn

NHS London is attracting more and more criticism over its support for “reconfiguration” plans for each of the capital’s subdistricts. These plans are based on former health minister Lord Darzi’s proposals for new “polyclinics,” designed to perform some of the functions of local GP services. Beyond this, the planners want to restructure hospital services – meaning cuts and closures – and centralise specialist services so that they’re available at only a small number of major hospitals. They are working on an assumption that post-2011 there will be a 0% real-terms growth in funding and a 4% increase in patients. In a worst-case scenario this could lead to a £5 billion cut by 2017.

Given that all three political parties have been quick to say that they won’t cut health expenditure in the future, what is behind NHS London’s decision to adopt the reconfiguration strategy? Either it is acting in good faith or the reconfiguration is a Trojan Horse to promote private funding and privatisation of services.

Since 1997 the government has made large increases in health expenditure, particularly during the time Frank Dobson was secretary of state. And there has been a real effort to tackle poverty-related disease. However, the NHS’s lack of transparency and accountability remains a problem. In London’s case, each of the 32 borough councils has a duty to monitor local NHS activities, reduce bureaucratic dispute and establish joint commissioning of social care between council social services departments and the local NHS. This limited form of accountability falls down when NHS London decides to establish cross-borough planning entities – in my constituency’s case, one covering the boroughs of Camden, Islington, Haringey and Barnet.

Despite the huge population of this area, there is no forum for public representation to officials to account. Leaked documents have indicated that North Central Area, like the other areas in London, is trying to centralise acute hospital services and set up specialist regional trauma units – A&E units in local hospitals will be closed and turned into little more than health centres.

These plans are being developed behind closed doors and apparently will not be made fully public until much later in the year. Further leaked information shows that a select group of 80 people has been invited to meet NHS planners in private to help “develop” these plans. The people and their elected representatives are excluded.

I do not believe that when Nye Bevan established the NHS he would ever have envisaged that major changes to the service could be made in such an arcane and obscure way, without proper public involvement or scrutiny. The issue of reconfiguration surfaced in a Commons debate on Tuesday when the House discussed health care in London. Many MPs drew attention to the huge disparities of life expectancy in relation to income across London. Former health secretary Dobson pointed out that he had changed expenditure patterns when he became secretary of state in order to recognise the needs of the poorest parts of London – something the Tories absolutely refused to do on their spree of hospital closures throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

As an MP I am determined to defend the 80,000 people who use our local A&E department at the Whittington Hospital every year, and the 600,000 who use A&E departments across north London. To close them exposes the population to danger, delays in treatment and, in some cases, death.

As we approach the general election, it is absolutely incumbent on the Labour Party, which founded the NHS, to guarantee its continuation. But above all the party must make sure that the NHS ceases to be a cash cow for the private sector. The NHS belongs to us, not the planners and not the privateers.

This article was also published in the Morning Star.