‘TORIES MADE NHS FAIL FOR PRIVATE GAIN’
Top doc says ‘crisis’ is bogus
® THE Tories have been accused of “creating” the crisis in the NHS as part of a plot to privatise it.
Medical chief Dr Chaand Nagpaul claims the Government deliberately underfunded the health service for years.
Dr Nagpaul, set to become chair of the British Medical Association tomorrow, insists overcrowding and long waiting times were “consciously created” by Whitehall chiefs.
In a motion put forward to the BMA’s annual conference in Bournemouth, he wrote: “The crisis in NHS hospitals has been consciously created by the Government in order to accelerate its transformation plans for private sector takeover of healthcare in England.
“Woeful Government underfunding of the NHS – coupled with continued austerity cuts – is the greatest threat to quality and safety in the NHS.”
And he added: “We are a rich nation, we are a civilised society, the public deserve a safe, civilised health service. We cannot and we must not accept anything less.”
However the BMA’s current chair Dr Porter said there was no evidence “it was a deliberate conspiracy”.
The Department of Health said Dr Nagpaul’s claim had “no relationship with reality”.
A spokeswoman said: “While of course there are pressures on the frontline, the Government is now spending more than any in history on the NHS.”
An extra two million people have registered with a GP in the past four years.
The system is buckling under intense pressure with each doctor now responsible for 1,700 patients.
Acute staff shortages in the service are leaving patients at risk of disaster, the Royal College of Nursing warned.
Chief executive Janet Davies said: “There had been a loud voice of nurses saying staffing levels were too low.”