We need to change our society – and consults

I AM writing with regard to the ongoing consultation over the future of Leicester’s much-loved hospitals which is drawing to an end on December 21.

I have read through parts of the 1,500-plus page detailed plan and it is extremely complicated. I found the eight-page consultation document puzzling and misleading.

For example, the costings in the detailed plan do not include the increase in capacity of 139 beds, or the plan for a community hub.

In my experience, public consultations have a tendency to contain leading questions, deliberately confusing information and vague promises. When the council was closing a number of libraries in Leicester, for example, we were not asked “Do you want local libraries to close?” but “Would you like libraries to have longer opening hours?”

Is it any wonder that many people will ignore the consultation and not see the value in using their own precious free time to fill in the questionnaire?

But when I was thinking about the general direction our NHS has been going in for some time now, it occurred to me all of the things that we have not been consulted on: why were we not asked whether we wanted private companies to grow

rich at the expense of public services? Why were we never consulted on the underfunding of our NHS, or the way key workers have been treated with contempt by this government?

Some may say general elections provide this function. But political parties invariably come to power on pledges to protect the NHS and provide world-class health services, not the opposite.

There is something very wrong with a society where those who need and fund health services through general taxation are constantly short-changed, in terms of value for money as well as in healthcare.

While profiteers continue to run down our health services, we must resist them and organise to stop their plundering. It is too important not to. People’s lives are at stake.

I will engage in the current consultation, and I would encourage others to do so too, but more importantly we need to fundamentally change society, so that the needs of ordinary workers are not just listened to in consultations, but so our voices are central to determining every aspect of our working world.

We make all the wealth generated in this country, so why shouldn’t we control how it’s spent?