The creation of our NHS in 1948 was a phenomenal achievement delivered by a post-war Labour Government. Its inception was part of a larger social contract that included jobs and housing for those who had sacrificed so much.

This was achieved in a time of crippling austerity and debt that far outstripped the current global financial crisis. The unique proposition that is the NHS is the envy of the world and the antipathy of a private healthcare industry that would leave behind the poor and vulnerable in a quest for profit. 

There are those who would suggest that the magnitude of Labour’s rescuing of our NHS in 1997, after the Thatcher/Major years, was a comparable achievement. It is widely acknowledged that another Conservative government at this time would have consigned the NHS, as we know it, to the history books.

The Coalition’s Health and Social Care Act of 2012 has once again taken our NHS to the brink. The Act unleashed privatisation by imposing competition law on the NHS and exposing services to bids from private companies who would cherry-pick based on profitability over people.

Creeping privatisation has affected Devizes in particular, now without provision for accident and emergency (minor injuries unit) and a privately-run facility that appears to lack the transparency that would be expected of a publicly- funded service.

I was pleased to see Clive Efford’s (Labour) Private Members’ Bill, designed to halt the corrosive spread of privatisation across the NHS. The Bill succeeded at the second reading stage by 241 votes in favour and only 18 votes against. It should be noted that not a single Wiltshire MP voted on this crucial Bill, preferring to stay away, as did most of the Coalition MPs. 

This is the start of our NHS fight- back. The Coalition did not have permission to dismantle our NHS by mandate or manifesto. It will be down to a Labour government, once again, to pick up the pieces.

Chris Watts,
Labour Prospective MP for Devizes,
Lansdowne Terrace,
Devizes.