No New Year’s resolution on government’s handling of NHS

6 January 2016

* Green Party leader to address nurses’ rally on Saturday

Green Party leader Natalie Bennett has said that the New Year turmoil in the NHS is an indictment of the government's poor handling of the National Health Service.

Natalie believes that the “fragmenting and damaging” effects of creeping privatisation are now clear for all to see.

Bennett said:

"With junior doctors set to go on strike next week and nurses marching on the streets on Saturday against the replacement of training bursaries with loans, the way in which the government has mismanaged, indeed deliberately torn apart, the NHS, is becoming apparent to all.

"Campaigners have been highlighting for years, over successive governments, the way in which privatisation has been fragmenting and damaging our health service, but it is now becoming evident to all the government's desire to hand our public service over to the profit-driven health multinationals, one part of which is cutting the pay and conditions of staff."

Bennett will be speaking at the start of the nurses' rally on Saturday. She said:

“I, along with members of my party, will be marching in solidarity with existing and prospective NHS workers who are now sick and tired of the government’s refusal to see an NHS bursary as an investment, rather than a cost.

“When it comes to the proper funding of our valued health service, this government time and time again are privatising, cutting funding and loading students with debt as a way to manage the NHS. This is tantamount to students paying to work and it’s time for this government to pay more than lip service to the incredible work done by NHS staff.”

On the junior doctors' strike, she said:

"We know that doctors don't want to strike. But they have been driven to this position by the actions of Jeremy Hunt, who from his own testimony has clearly failed to listen to their concerns, and certainly failed to act on them."

ENDS

Notes:

The rally to save the student bursary for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals is at 12pm, Saturday 9 January 2016

More information about the event can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/440660962797762/448395395357652/

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