I was part of a delegation of NHS staff who took part in the various NHS Together rallies across England on March 3.
My delegation included staff from Watford and Barnet hospitals, as well as staff from the blood service. Together with other health service staff we represented the 90,000 NHS staff working in the east of England.
NHS Together is an affiliation of trade unions, professional bodies, NHS staff and members of the public. The body has been formed because of concerns about the current state of the NHS and the Government's agenda.
There have been 3,000 redundancies in the east of England, many of who are skilled and professional staff, and this is a great loss to the NHS.
We also want to put the message out to the Government that we do not want a market-based system for healthcare.
It is a waste of money and one that is not evidence based.
Much of the additional funding that has gone into the NHS has been wasted on overly complicated payments by results schemes, private treatment centres, or it has been channeled into inefficient private financing.
Here, a private company builds a new hospital. The NHS pays the private company for a period of 38 years, and at the end of that time the land reverts back to the private company at a higher cost than if the Government had paid for the hospital in the first place. Efficiency or madness?
In short, the NHS Together campaign aims to get the Government to start listening and to make residents aware that skilled staff need to be retained in the NHS and that the solution for an improved health service is more co-operation, more co-ordination, and less competition.
Tim Sandle Hillside Avenue, Borehamwood
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