Public And Private Healthcare Provision

EDM number 109 in 2009-10, proposed by Diane Abbott on 19/11/2009.
Categorised under the topic of Health services.

That this House believes that in order for healthcare to be truly public it must be free at the point of access and run by not-for-profit organisations; is concerned by recent developments which have seen private, profit-making companies awarded contracts to run NHS healthcare clinics; notes with concern that three clinics in Hackney are already being run by private, profit-making companies; further notes with concern that there are plans to tender out two new GP-led healthcare centres in Hackney, potentially to private, profit-making companies; further believes that all healthcare should be provided by bodies that have the interests of their patients, not their shareholders, as a priority; is concerned that privately-run healthcare centres tend to offer short-term contracts for GPs instead of allowing doctors to build up a knowledge of the local area; is further concerned by evidence that the bidding process for healthcare centres is biased in favour of private, profit-making companies who have considerably more financial and legal resources to devote to the bidding process; and calls on the Government to reverse its decision to allow private, profit-making companies to tender for healthcare centre contracts.

This motion has been signed by a total of 28 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.