Dear Mr Hunt,
General practice is about care, continuity of care, joined up care, care for all. 68 years of NHS care has contributed to our increased lifespans.
Diseases and accidents happen to us all, from cancer to bunions, all diagnosed and followed up in general practice. Without GPs who would co-ordinate care? Wikipedia? A smartphone app?
GPs want to do the best for their patients. People want continuity with their GPs, nurses and hospitals.
Mr Hunt, you are causing havoc in the NHS. GPs are retiring early, junior doctors are on strike, beds are closed, mental health care is collapsing, waiting times are up, the number of nurses down. The savage Conservative cuts to councils make care in the community a hollow sound bite.
Mr Hunt, stop wasting billions of pounds on the NHS market, paying NHS money to private companies who use offshore tax havens. The solution to NHS funding is not more competition or more advice from KPMG. The solution is to restore the NHS to full public ownership, a NHS which is comprehensive, efficient and affordable.
On 1 July 2015, 12 MPs, from the major national political parties, except the Torys, tabled the National Health Service Bill in the House of Commons. This Bill guarantees a comprehensive health service, a duty abolished in 2012. The NHS Bill reverses 25 years of markets in the NHS and reconstitutes the NHS as a public service, accountable to local communities and not shareholders.
The second reading of the NHS Bill is on 11 March. Will you, Mr Hunt, support the NHS Bill?
NHS workers and patients will be outside parliament at 11am on the 11 March to hear whether you have voted for the Bill, whether you are big enough to acknowledge the damage you have done to the NHS and to patients, to show you care about the health of the nation.
Patients are not efficient, patients are not consumers or corporate entities, patients are people. We all need kindness, human contact, good diagnostics and treatment, not cuts and apps Mr Hunt.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Coral Jones
