LABOUR FRINGE 2025: RESTORE OUR NHS
The first of the SHA fringe events at the Labour Party Conference heard speakers addressing our call to Restore the NHS. Our Restored NHS would be based on the founding principles of the NHS- being publicly funded and provided, and operating in the context of a fully functioning welfare state.
The Chair of the meeting, Esther Giles SHA Treasurer, introduced the session by putting the meeting in the context of the SHA’s previous work In Place of Profit, which shone a light on the creeping corporate capture of the NHS over the past 40 years. Esther described how the “Revolving Door” between corporate for-profit healthcare and the publicly provided NHS has continued with the 2024 NHS Ten-Year Plan. Not only does this plan further embed corporate ethos, it also, as part of this, offers further profit opportunities via a revival of the maligned and expensive Public/Private Partnerships (PPPs) and associated Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) that had accelerated through the Blair era, only to be stopped by the Tory Government in 2018 following the excoriating NAO Report that year. Esther called for a halt to the PPP initiatives in the Ten-Year Plan.
The SHA response to the 10-year plan is here and the specific narrative on the PPP component is published here.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy is Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill and entered Parliament in 2019. Bell Ribero-Addy spoke passionately about the NHS as an essential service both free at the point of use and publicly provided. Bell described current dilemmas in maternity care and drew on recent work on black maternal health.
Dr. John Puntis is co-Chair of Keep Our NHS Public and is a retired paediatrician. John described research evidence on the drain on public resources effected by the private sector. He described the 10-Year Plan as a set of ambitions rather than a robust plan. There is no evidence that new, untested digital technologies and patient controlled applications could predict and prevent ill health, and reduce health inequalities. It didn’t make sense that artificial Intelligence and genomic science could somehow propel the NHS to global leadership in healthcare and outcomes. Current policy direction abandons the concept of publicly providing services whilst setting out ambitions for technological experiments lacking an evidence base either in terms of delivery or efficiency.
Dr. Helen Neary is co-chair of the BMA UK Consultants Committee, and was elected in September 2024. Helen spoke of the BMA’s intention to proceed to industrial action to secure pay restoration for doctors. Consultants’ pay is still more than a quarter down on 2008 levels and lagging way behind other professions. She said that their efforts are about ensuring the NHS can continue to provide high-quality care to patients for years to come.
David Rowland is the founding Director of the Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI). David described their recent work on the outsourcing of NHS eye care to the private sector and described the key fundings of this work.. He described the powerful and essential reassurance obtained by patients receiving publicly provided health care- that the clinician was acting solely in their interests and not with a profit or other incentive.
There followed lively and informative contributions and questions from the audience- with time running out before we could hear from everyone. The session concluded with closing remarks from the panelists.
With thanks to all contributors and attendees.