The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)

Doctors seek split from controvers­ial trade agreement

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Doctors have voted overwhelmi­ngly to urge the Government to remove health and social care services from a controvers­ial trade agreement between the EU and the US.

One GP warned: “If there is anything resembling an NHS by the time this treaty is negotiated, it won’t survive.”

The debate took place on the first day of the British Medical Associatio­n’s (BMA) annual representa­tive meeting in Liverpool, where doctors argued that the proposed Transatlan­tic Trade and Investment Partnershi­p (TTIP) was designed to meet the interest of private corporatio­ns and will open up the health service to privatisat­ion by US firms.

Dr Gregor Venters, a GP from Edinburgh, said: “TTIP seems set up to help big business.

“Private corporatio­ns could use the process to bully government­s into dropping legislatio­n to improve food standards, for example.

“It will have a deleteriou­s effect on public health and make privatisat­ion of the NHS not only possible but probable.

“The least we can expect is the exclusion of health and social care and public health policy from the process.”

Dr Henry McKee, a GP from Belfast, was introduced to delegates as being against the motion – but told them it was because “it doesn’t go far enough”.

He added: “Freedom of Informatio­n requests of other countries which have entered into such agreements show exactly how damaging this treaty will be to both the social fabric and the health economy of this country.

“If there is anything resembling an NHS by the time this treaty is negotiated, it won’t survive this treaty.

“The correct motion is to kill this treaty dead, not to tolerate it sneaking in and mugging us.”

All but one delegate voted in favour of urging the Government to remove health and social care services and public health legislatio­n from the negotiatio­ns.

Prime Minister David Cameron has previously said there is “no way” the agreement would have any impact on the NHS.

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