NHS Listening Exercise

The Green Party have called for the end to the NHS market and an end to private profit in their submission to the NHS listening exercise.

"Service" must be at the heart of the National Health Service, rather than the insurance system that the government plans to turn the NHS into.

Stuart Jeffery, health spokesperson for the Green Party, said:

"The health care market has been a costly failure. Since the introduction of the market into the NHS, management costs have risen from 5% to around 14%, with no benefits to patients. People don't want a choice of provider when they need care. They simply want good quality local services that they can access quickly and easily.

"Far from driving up standards, competition will promote the cheapest health care options and therefore the lowest quality, with any savings going into the profits of private companies.

"Successive governments have used the the market to dismantle the NHS and bring in private companies. This has only benefited corporations, not patients or taxpayers.

"The NHS needs reform, but Andrew Lansley's health bill will destroy the NHS and turn it into an Americanised insurance system. NHS reforms should return the NHS to public provision and scrap the health care market."

See the Green Party website for the letter.