Bring Back the NHS – speeches online

Hope is born from passion. Bring Back the NHS was, above all, a cry of hope. From gentle determination to fiery defiance, from compassion to fury, the conviction of the speakers and the feelings of the audience bore one simple truth: the NHS must not die. We shall not allow it. 

All the speeches from the evening are now available. To find the speech from Professor Allyson Pollock about why we need an NHS Reinstatement Bill, click the Playlist (top left hand corner) and choose speech 8.

 

Sir Ian McKellen and Allyson Pollock Bring Back the NHS

Sir Ian McKellen, the host of Bring Back the NHS, alongside Professor Allyson Pollock, the coauthor of the NHS Reinstatement Bill

Backstage all speakers

Backstage – all the Bring Back the NHS Speakers

 

Danny Boyle Bring Back the NHS

Danny Boyle (Director – films, theatre and the London Olympics ceremony) was the warm-up act

 

Professor Allyson Pollock, one of the co-authors of the NHS Reinstatement Bill, urging people to support the campaign

Professor Allyson Pollock, one of the co-authors of the NHS Reinstatement Bill

Dr Chidi Ejimofo (Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Lewisham Hospital)

Dr Chidi Ejimofo (Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Lewisham Hospital)

Dr Gurjinder Singh Sandhu (Consultant in Infectious Diseases and General Medicine)

Dr Gurjinder Singh Sandhu (Consultant in Infectious Diseases, Ealing Hospital)

Virginia Patania (GP practice manager, Tower Hamlets)

Virginia Patania (GP practice manager, Tower Hamlets)

Linda Peanberg King (NHS campaigner and 38 Degrees)

Linda Peanberg King (NHS campaigner and 38 Degrees)

File 25-04-2015 23 18 15

Marcus Chown (Writer, Broadcaster and NHS Campaigner)

 

 


BMJ article – Why the Queen’s Speech on 19 May should include a bill to reinstate the NHS in England


Promote, Provide – Procrastinate? Beware the Devil in the Detail

Labour’s health manifesto is flawed. With the best of intentions, it misses the point – or rather, doesn’t quite reach it. And it’s all down to understanding what the Secretary of Health MUST provide as well as promote when it comes to health services and the NHS – hence what needs putting right if the NHS is not to continue to wither away.

Page 9 of its Health Manifesto (A Better plan for the NHS, health and care) says they will “restore the Secretary of State’s historic duty to provide a comprehensive health service”, even though the statement does not appear in the actual main Party manifesto.

David Lock, QC – former Labour MP and widely said to be the drafter of the National Health Service (Amended Duties and Powers) Bill presented in 2014 to the House of Commons by Clive Efford MP (the ‘Efford Bill’, filibustered to death in Committee by whipped Tories just before the last Parliament was dissolved) – says in a piece on Clive Efford’s website:

“Since the creation of the NHS in April 1948 the Secretary of State has always had the duty to promote a comprehensive health service but has never had a duty to provide a comprehensive health service”

The thing is, Mr Lock’s statement is actually correct. But it misses the critical point.

In 1946, Parliament formulated a clear framing ministerial duty in section 1 of the founding NHS Act, continued in later Acts, though slightly diluted in 2006. The most recent version – before the Health and Social Care Act 2012 – was in s.1(2) of the NHS Act 2006: to provide or secure the provision of services in accordance with the Act for the purposes of a comprehensive health service that it was also the duty of the Secretary of State to promote. In section 3, the Act gave him or her the specific duty to provide hospital and specialist services throughout England and Wales. This duty was later extended under the Heath government to medical, dental, nursing and ambulance services, and to certain community care services that had previously been placed on local authorities.

Sections 1 and 3 are to be read together: as Lord Woolf said in 2001, the Secretary of State in section 1 “has the duty to continue to promote a comprehensive free health service and he must never, in making a decision under section 3, disregard that duty”.

Why then is Labour saying they will restore a historic duty that never existed?

What needs restoring is the duty to provide or secure the provision of services in accordance with the Act for the purposes of a comprehensive health service that it is also the duty of the Secretary of State to promote; and his or her duty under section 3 to provide hospitals, medical, dental, nursing and ambulance services, and community care services. The NHS Bill would do both. The Efford Bill would do neither.

More information

Our previous news stories on the National Health Service (Amended Duties and Powers) Bill

2nd Committee Debate 10 Feb 2014 - 4 Clive EffordEfford Bill Filibustering Blunders On
10 February 2015

 

Empty Select CommitteeTory MPs filibuster to block Efford Bill
4th February 2015

 

Hunt_wide2_400x400Response of Peter Roderick and Professor Allyson Pollock to Lord Hunt
26th November 2014

 

Big BenHouse of Commons Library briefing amended – no longer any mention of re-establishing or reinstating a legal duty to provide
25th November 2014

 

Peter Roderick speaking in Committee Room 9 at the House of Commons on the Efford BillResponse to Clive Efford MP’s legal advice on Secretary of State’s ‘duty to provide’
24th November 2014

 

Peter Roderick speaking in Committee Room 9 at the House of Commons on the Efford BillA day in the Commons for the Efford Bill – a personal view
22nd November 2014

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAUpdate on Clive Efford NHS Bill
21st November 2014

 

Big BenDuty to provide throughout England? Request for correction of House of Commons Library Briefing
20th November 2014

 

Clive Efford NHS BillEfford Bill 2nd Reading – Friday 21st November
20th November 2014

 

Clive Efford Private Members Bill copyResponse to Clive Efford MP’s Bill
19th November 2014


Bring Back the NHS, have you bought your tickets? London, Friday April 24th, 7pm


Over 200 Green Party candidates say they support the NHS Reinstatement Bill

200 Greens

Over 200 Green Party candidates have now stated their personal support for the NHS Reinstatement Bill. The full list of names and constituencies is below (ordered by surname). Is your candidate there?

Many of the candidates have also provided personal statements of their support.

Who are we?

We are a non-partisan campaign calling for candidates of all political parties to back the inclusion of an NHS Reinstatement Bill in the Queen’s Speech after the election.

So far we have had the backing of the Green Party, the SNP and the National Health Action Party. Dozens of Labour party candidates have also stated their support, as have some Liberal Democrats. The full list of supportive candidates is growing all the time.

Your candidates

Do you know what your local candidates think about the NHS Reinstatement Bill? You can check to see whether we have seen a response from your area.

The list of candidates so far

James Abbott Witham
David Akan Hammersmith
Abbey Akinoshun Greenwich and Woolwich
Claire Allen Pudsey
Shahrar Ali Brent Central
Tim Andrewes St Ives
Chas Ball Colne Valley
Lucy Bannister Manchester, Withington
Geoff Barnes Gainsborough
Charles Barraball Wimbledon
Scott Bartle Brent North
Jonathan Bartley Streatham
Pippa Bartolotti Newport West
Martin Bartos Glasgow North
Ian Baxter Midlothian
Katy Beddoe Caerphilly
Natalie Bennett Holborn and St Pancras
Darren Bisby-Boyd Peterborough
Kate Bisson Leeds East
Katharina Boettge Nottingham North
Alan Borgars Hemel Hempstead
Martin Brampton Middlesborough South and East Cleveland
Dave Brooks Elmet and Rothwell
Andrew Brown Skipton and Ripon
Ros Brown Keighley
Frances Bryant Preseli Pembrokeshire
Janet Burnet South Dorset
Lewis Campbell Dunfermline and West Fife
Chris Carmichael Brecon and Radnorshire
Emma Carter Leeds North East
Tom Chance Lewisham West and Penge
Phil Chandler Morecambe and Lunesdale
Mike Cherrington Darlington
Maureen Childs Poplar and Limehouse
Tony Clarke Northampton North
Chris Coates Lancaster and Fleetwood
Geraldine Coggins Stretford and Urmston
Rachel Collinson West Ham
Gill Coombs Totnes
Andrew Cooper Huddersfield
Chris Copeman Weaver Vale
Martin Corney South East Cornwall
Jon Cousins Wells
Alison Craig Salisbury
Peter Cranie Liverpool, Wavertree
Jillian Creasy Sheffield Central
Simon Ashley Cross Rochford and Southend East
Adrian Cruden Dewsbury and Mirfield
Helen Davison Carlisle
Tim Dawes Havant
Bob Dennett Fylde
David Derbyshire North Somerset
Martin Dobson Liverpool, Riverside
Nicola Dodgson East Surrey
James Doyle East Worthing and Shoreham
Vicky Duckworth Dudley South
Ann Duncan Oxford East
Vicky Dunn Great Grimsby
Andrew Durling Eastbourne and Willingdon
Tony Dyer Bristol South
Cath Edwards The Wrekin
Paul Edwards Tiverton and Honiton
Graham Elliott Waveney
Jonathan Elmer Durham City
Jonathan Essex Reigate
Charlotte Farrell High Peak
Jacquetta Fewster Mole Valley
Heather Finley Hackney North and Stoke Newington
Paul Field Newbury
Tony Firkins Feltham and Heston
David Flint Enfield North
Derek Florey Bracknell
Shirley Ford South Shields
Marc Fothergill Dwyfor-Meirionydd
Neil Franks Mid Worcestershire
Andree Frieze Richmond Park
Paul Frost Mansfield
Jon Fuller Southend West
Geoff Garbett Cambourne, Redruth and Hayle
Peter Garbutt Sheffield Hallam
Stella Gardiner Bexleyheath and Crayford
Helen Geake Bury St Edmunds
Charlotte George Hackney South and Shoreditch
Dominic Giles Stratford-upon-Avon
Christine Gilligan Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough
Daniel Goldsmith Brentford and Isleworth
Tim Goodall Leeds North West
Hannah Graham Middlesbrough
Andrew Gray Newcastle upon Tyne East
Darrin Green Horsham
Tim Greene Haltemprice and Howden
Miles Grindey Fareham
Ashley Gunstock Leyton and Wanstead
Darren Hall Bristol West
Iain Hamilton Thornberry and Yate
Matthew Handley Coventry North East
Gulnar Hasnain Vauxhall
Julie Hawkins Northampton South
Michael Hayton Leeds Central
Poppy Hebden-Leeder Swindon North
Martin Hemingway Morley and Outwood
Ralph Hierons Erewash
Mark Hollinrake Rochdale
Adrian Holmes Norwich North
Nicola Holmes Tamworth
Michael Holt Hartlepool
Jonathan Hornett Corby and East Northamptonshire
Richard Howarth Beverley and Holderness
Guy Hudson Crawley
Alasdair Ibbotson Alyn and Deeside
Jonathan Ingleby Gloucester
Paul Jeater Braintree
Stuart Jeffrey Canterbury
Andrew Johnston Hampshire North East
Davy Jones Brighton Kemptown
Shasha Khan Croydon North
Talis Kimberley-Fairbourn South Swindon
Charlie Kiss Islington South and Finsbury
Ricky Knight North Devon
Keith Kondakor Nuneaton
Nicholas Koopman Denton & Reddish
Diana Korchien Meon Valley
Richard Lawson Weston-super-Mare
William Lavin Bermondsey & Old Southwark
Graham Lee Uxbridge and South Ruislip
Mark Lindop Gravesham
Robert Lindsay South Suffolk
Jacqui Lovell Stockton South
Vix Lowthion Isle of Wight
Chris Loynes Westmorland and Lonsdale
Caroline Lucas Brighton, Pavilion
Sarah Lunnon Stroud
Stuart Macdonald Witney
Rustam Majainah Runnymede and Weybridge
Richard Mallender Rushcliffe
David Malone Scarborough and Whitby Green
Mark Maloney East Yorkshire
Jennifer Marklew Milton Keynes North
Anna Masters Birmingham, Northfield
Sally May New Forest East
Ian McCulloch Portsmouth South
Susan McGrath Epsom and Ewell
Adam McGregor Nottingham South
Paul McNally Blaydon
Natalie McVey Wyre Forest
Ian Middleton Banbury
Diana Moore Exeter
Derek Moran Old Bexley and Sidcup
Jennifer Nadel Westminster North
Chris Nash Birmingham Hodge Hill
Chris Newsam Thirsk and Malton
Jim Norris Gedling
Shan Oakes Harrogate and Knaresborough
Esther Obiri-Darko Tooting
Margaret Okole Birmingham Ladywood
Michelle Palmer Ellesmere Port and Neston
Samantha Pancheri Milton Keynes South
James Parker Eltham
Hannah Patton Maidstone and the Weald
Will Patterson Wigan
Jill Perry Workington
Gordon Peters Hornsey and Wood Green
Niall Pettitt West Suffolk
Janet Phillips Ludlow
Peter Pinkney Redcar and Cleveland
Joan Plimmer Macclesfield
Andrew Pointon Leeds West
Alistair Polson Bethnal Green and Bow
Chris Poole Putney
A.M. Poppy Chipping Barnet
Kate Prendergast Wantage
David Ratcliff Sutton Coldfield
Rupert Read Cambridge
Jasper Richmond Chichester
Rachael Roberts Berwick-upon-Tweed
Nick Robertson-Brown Altrincham and Sale West
Jean Robertson-Molloy Enfield Southgate
Andy Robinson Bradford South
Greg Robinson Sedgefield
Martin Robson Woking
Robina Rose Kensington
Julian Roskams West Worcestershire
Jenny Ross Stalybridge & Hyde
Mandy Rossi Ashford
Leslie Rowe Richmond (Yorks)
Catherine Rowett South Norfolk
Guy Rubin Chelsea and Fulham
Caroline Russell Islington North
Simon Saggers South Cambridgeshire
Ben Samuel Hendon
Larry Sanders Oxford West and Abingdon
Gary Scott Halifax
Dee Searle Tottenham
Clive Semmens South East Cambridgeshire
Ginnie Shaw York Outer
Jenny Shepherd Calder Valley
Mark Shilcock North West Durham
Michael Short Barnsley Central
Cathrine Simmons Torridge and West Devon
Theo Simon Somerton and Frome
Phil Simpson Birmingham Edgbaston
Matt Sisson Loughborough
Steve Slade St Austell and Newquay
Hugh Small Cities of London and Westminster
Mark Smith Wealden
Rachel Smith-Lyte Suffolk Coastal
Chris Southhall Clacton on Sea
John Southworth Bury North
Dave Stevens Bradford East
Mark Stevenson Henley
Esther Sutton Croydon Central
Lisa Tallis Bootle
Rebecca Thackray Wakefield
Clare Thomas Birmingham Selly Oak
Carol Thornton Cleethorpes
Isabel Thurston Arundel and South Downs
Diana Toynbee Hereford and South Herefordshire
Dominic Tristram Bath
Rebecca Tully Chingford and Woodford Green>
Jonathan Tyler York Central
Peter Underwood Croydon South
Tim Valentine Faversham and Mid Kent
Adam van Coevorden Cheltenham
Emma van Dyke Salford and Eccles
William Ward Garston and Halewood
Diana Warner Filton and Bradley Stoke
Kevin Warnes Shipley
Steve Whiffen Daventry
Graham White Stevenage
Rob White Reading East
Andy Williamson Central Devon
Lee Williscroft-Ferris Hexham
Richard Wise Hitchen and Harpenden
Antonia Zenkevitch Nottingham East

 


Worcestershire Hospital crisis predicted by Allyson Pollock 15 years ago

The current crisis in Worcestershire Hospital Trust where patients have been turned away and experiencing long delays (Disaster doctor sent to under-pressure Worcestershire Royal – BBC News) were all predicted back in 2000 by Allyson Pollock and colleagues in the report into Worcestershire and Kidderminster hospitals ‘Deficits before Patients’.

 
The report showed that the high costs of PFI could only be met by major bed and hospital closures including the local accident and emergency department in Kidderminster. They predicted that need would not be met as a result of bed and service closures and the bed crisis has continued to this day. It was the reason why Richard Taylor was elected twice as an independent candidate in Wyre Forest, because David Lock (the Labour candidate) did not oppose PFI or service closures.

Meanwhile the exorbitant costs of PFI in Hereford which also resulted in major bed closures has seeen the launch of a new plan to rebuild Hereford County Hosptial reorganisation. (Worcester News – Trust Board backs £40 million plan to “re-build” Hereford County Hospital.)

 

Interviewed by the BBC for the Today programme an unidentified senior clinical member of staff from the trust said:

 

“The problem at the moment is that the Worcestershire hospital is far too small. They can’t cope with the number of admissions or the number of walk-in patients that turn up in A&E.
 
“These things mean we have ended up with a crisis in A&E.

 
“They have now drawn little rectangles into the corridors to signify that is a corridor bed. It’s incredibly stressful. It becomes a Third World situation where only the very sickest patients can be treated properly.”

 

Over the past few years patients and staff have been repeatedly drawing attention to the crisis which has spread across the West Midlands to neighbouring hospitals.

 

Take Action

We need politicians in the next parliament to introduce an NHS Reinstatement Bill.  Please ask your parliamentary candidates for their support.


SNP MPs to vote to restore England’s NHS

17th April 2015 – SNP issued a press release demonstrating their support for a Campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill.

The full text of the press release is copied below.

Do you know what the position of your candidates on the NHS Reinstatement Bill?

Responses so far – find out what your candidates think about the Bill

Take Action – Ask your parliamentary candidates to support the Bill

FM – SNP MPs to vote to restore England’s NHS

 

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is today reaffirming the SNP’s commitment to voting to restore the NHS in England – on the day that prominent health expert Allyson Pollock backed the SNP’s position.

Campaigning in Central Ayrshire with SNP candidate Philippa Whitford – an NHS consultant breast surgeon – the First Minister will set out how SNP MPs will back a Bill to restore the NHS – ensuring the health service south of the border remains in public hands and protecting Scotland’s health budget in the process.

Backing the SNP’s position, Allyson Pollock – Professor of Public Health Research and Policy at Queen Mary University of London said:

“The NHS in England has been effectively abolished by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and health services are being broken up and put out to tender in the open market. NHS money is now flowing through commercial contracting bodies, known as Clinical Commissioning Groups, to commercial for profit providers which can pick and choose the services and patients they want to treat. Those NHS hospitals which are foundation trusts have been established as 51% public which means that increasingly half the beds, staff and services can be diverted to private patients i.e. those that can afford to pay. As the NHS withers away and hospitals and beds close people will find it increasingly difficult to get care, patients are already being turned away from some hospitals and services.

“With cross party support, the SNP has backed a Bill to reinstate the NHS south of the border – and this is a hugely significant step demonstrating the impact SNP MPs could have in the next Parliament. Without taking such action, the NHS in England will cease to exist – with catastrophic consequences for people in England and serious implications for the people of Scotland and its NHS. It is important that people consider this before casting their vote in the General Election. The NHS is such a vital service and we need to do everything in our power to reinstate and restore it in England while we still can.”

Welcoming the endorsement, Ms Sturgeon said:

“The NHS is our most precious national resource – yet the current Westminster agenda of austerity, privatisation and patient charging in the NHS is threatening the very foundations of the health service south of the border and is putting funding for the NHS in Scotland at risk.

“That’s why the SNP has been clear that our MPs will vote for a Bill to restore England’s NHS to its founding principles, ensuring it remains the accountable public service it was always meant to be – and protecting Scotland’s health budget in the process. And I’m delighted that our position has been endorsed by someone of the standing of Professor Allyson Pollock today.

“Restoring the NHS in England is just one example of the way SNP MPs can be a strong voice at Westminster for progressive politics which will benefit people in the rest of the UK as much as people in Scotland – compared to a Westminster establishment which has its priorities all wrong.

“A publicly owned, properly funded health service is the hallmark of a decent society – and I will be immensely proud for the SNP to take action in the next Parliament to put an end to Westminster’s privatisation and cuts agenda ensure people across these islands have the top quality healthcare they deserve.”

SNP candidate for Central Ayrshire and NHS consultant breast surgeon Philippa Whitford said:

“As an NHS professional, I know that Professor Pollock is held in the highest esteem by people across the health service – and I am absolutely delighted that she has endorsed the SNP’s plan to restore England’s NHS today.

“Westminster’s cuts and privatisation agenda south of the border is having a devastating impact on England’s NHS – and threatening Scotland’s health budget – and has to be stopped. A strong team of SNP MPs elected next month will stand up for the founding principles of our health service – voting to restore England’s NHS and further protecting and improving Scotland’s NHS budget.”

ENDS


Professor Allyson Pollock on BBC News


Prof Allyson Pollock on Radio 5 live Breakfast


Will politicians be architects or destroyers of the NHS?

Allyson Pollock has reviewed Lord David Owen’s book ‘The Health of the Nation’ in the Lancet.

This article originally appeared in the Lancet, 28 March 2015.

revolutionary 'B' pb grid.qxdIn the history of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), the Health and Social Care Act 2012 will go down as the most egregious act of vandalism against the people of England. During its passage through Parliament, David Owen called it the “Secretary of State’s Abdication Bill”, because the legislation removed the Secretary of State for Health’s responsibility for, and duty to provide, an NHS throughout England. The Act’s destructive effect is being felt in all political jurisdictions. But it has fallen to Owen, a peer in the House of Lords who describes himself as an independent social democrat, to take on the mantle of Nye Bevan, the founding father of the NHS. A veteran politician, Owen has served as Labour health minister and foreign secretary, and led the Social Democratic Party in the 1980s.

In The Health of the Nation, Owen returns to grass roots politics in his account of the People’s Commission in Lewisham, south London, and the Save Our Surgeries campaigns to stop NHS hospital and general practice closures in 2013–14. He documents the tenacity of local campaigners and NHS staff and patients to stop closures of their hospital and community services, which were driven by the high costs of servicing private finance initiative (PFI) debt. The fight went to the High Court where the people won; they won again when the UK Government appealed against the decision. Owen explains how the costs of the PFI debt repayments combined with budget cuts are the engine for NHS hospital, general practice, and community closures across the country. He outlines how privatisation is opening up health services to international markets and making public services vulnerable to trade treaties and legal challenges from multinational investors. As a former doctor, he fears the dismantling of the NHS will see a return to public health tragedies on a scale not seen since before World War 2.

Values of social solidarity led to the creation of the NHS in 1948. At a time when the country was bankrupted by war, the nation decided to build a welfare state of which the NHS was a part. Moral values translated into a legal duty on the Secretary of State for Health to provide an NHS throughout the UK. It would be afforded because it was what the people wanted and voted for. The NHS was not a romantic aspiration.

The NHS survived in England until 2012. Since then, the NHS in England has been reduced to uncoordinated, fragmented services, disconnected from local communities and resident areas. The NHS is still in place in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and for the people of the UK it remains the most popular of all the welfare institutions.

Owen sets out starkly how the NHS in England is withering away. By abolishing the legal duty to provide an NHS and entrenching market contracting and competition, the Coalition Government has reduced the NHS to little more than a public funding stream. In its place are market bodies, known as NHS England, Monitor, Care Quality Commission, and Clinical Commissioning Groups. Health services in England are moving to a US model in which increasingly access will not be through automatic entitlement but through local eligibility criteria as commissioners decide what services will be funded by the NHS and what will be paid for. For the first time since the NHS began, legislation requires health-care providers to draw up eligibility criteria as part of their licence conditions. In this system patient choice does not mean patients having choice of providers, but rather providers being able to choose their patients and treatments on the basis of ability to pay. Patients can and are being turned away and denied care.

The NHS had solid foundations. Its system was based on fairness of funding through income taxes and designed to maximise redistribution of resources and services. An efficient public bureaucracy ensured that administration costs were no more than 5% of the total budget and health expenditure didn’t rise much above 4% of GDP. However, since 1990, under Conservative and Labour administrations, market incrementalism has been a hallmark of NHS legislation with the introduction of the purchaser-provider split, use of private finance for new capital projects, and greater use of the private sector and market contracting. The incoming Labour Government in 1997 accelerated market-driven measures giving powers to Trusts to raise capital, use their financial freedoms to generate private income, and enter into exorbitant PFI debt obligations and commercial contracts. The link between planned services and the needs of the local population was being broken. And now, under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, all NHS Trusts must become NHS Foundation Trusts and legislation sets out that it expects these, in turn, to be 51% NHS and 49% private in terms of the income and services provided.

The destructive disorganisation that has resulted from the 2012 Act has led to enormous fragmentation and cost as general practice, hospital, and mental health services are broken up in piecemeal fashion and put out to tender with no regard to planning for need. Commercial contracting is expensive and reduces integration as providers are risk averse and cherry pick the best services and patients. Risk selection is accelerated by the carve up of many public health functions and transfer of some services, including children’s services, sexual health services, and district nursing, to cash-strapped local authorities that will in the future contract them out further fragmenting services. The UK Government is already being subject to challenges from the private sector when they perceive EU competition and procurement rules are not being followed. As Owen so passionately argues, abolishing the purchaser-provider split and the market in the NHS and returning services to public control and direct provision would protect the NHS from challenges from investors under TTIP and other trade treaties; it will also enable greater integration of health and social care and ensure equity of access and quality.

Owen warns us that we have little time left to reinstate the NHS—if we don’t, by 2020 the NHS as we know it will have disappeared not with a bang but with a whimper. Political pledges and manifestos cannot be trusted, solutions are required. Only legislation can reinstate the NHS. The UK election in May could well see a hung Parliament in which minority parties, such as the Scottish National Party, determine the balance of power. If this should happen the electorate will need to know that legislation to reinstate the NHS is not negotiable when deals are being struck.

On March 11, 2015, a Bill to reinstate the NHS in England was tabled in Parliament with cross-party support. The NHS Bill 2015 will abolish market and NHS contracting and the expensive market bureaucracy, make the Treasury responsible for resolving the high cost of private finance, and restore the duty of the Secretary of State to provide listed health services to meet the needs of people throughout England. Prospective parliamentary candidates are being asked to declare their support for this Bill before the election.

Politicians declare we can no longer afford universal health care, although the cost of the NHS per person is far less than any country with marketised health systems. The UK certainly cannot afford a market—the US experience tells us what is in store with health-care costs in excess of 17% of GDP. Owen calls on us to ask our prospective parliamentary candidates to support legislation to restore and reinstate the English NHS in the next Parliament, in return for their votes. If they do not the NHS will wither away as large for-profit multinational corporations take over patient services and determine what will be paid for and what services will be provided. Inequity and denial of care will become the new hallmark of health services in England.

The Health of the Nation is a clarion call from an experienced statesman to aspiring politicians across the political spectrum. Owen is writing for posterity. The question on May 7 is how do the politicians want to be remembered, as the architects or destroyers of the NHS?