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Mr. Speaker,
I beg to move that this bill be read and printed a second time as an Opposition Day Motion.
James McCrimmon
Leader of the Labour Party (1990-Present)
Leader of Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition (1990-Present)
Member of Parliament for Glasgow Pollok (1970-Present)
Traits: Campaigning Guru, 2XP
Formerly Shadow Solicitor General (1972-1974), Attorney General (1974-1979), Shadow Attorney General (1979-1980), Shadow Health Sec (1981-1983), Shadow Environment Sec (1984-1987), Shadow Employment Sec (1987-1989), Shadow Social Security Sec (1989-1990)
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Robin Cook:
Mr. Speaker,
I am pleased to present the Internal Market (Abolition) Act 1992, which forms the cornerstone of Labour's ambition to not just end the internal market, but to end the creeping privatisation of our National Health Service as we've seen under the Tories and return the NHS to its principles whilst ensuring it is fit for a modern age.
Mr. Speaker, the values of the NHS mean very little to the Tory Party, so their one excuse is efficiency. But we know that there is no evidence to prove that the fragmentation and bureaucratisation of the health service has delivered that efficiency: waiting lists up continue to rise up and patient satisfaction is down. At best, the internal market does nothing but waste money on the structures and barriers that it raises. At the worst, it contributes to the dismal record in the health service we have seen under this Conservative government.
Mr. Speaker, it does not have to be this way. We can abolish the internal market and invest the £100 million it wastes back into frontline health service, focusing on nursing over managing. Today, the government has the choice to follow this path. The Prime Minister says she is different to her predecessors - lets see if she is.
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David Mellor:
Mr Speaker,
The internal market is good for the NHS.
Competition reduces costs, improves quality, speeds up innovation – and gives patients the right to choose between providers.
The internal market decentralises decision making – putting power in the hands of regional health authorities to make the decisions that benefit local people.
It is even provable that costs are lower, as a result of the internal market, than in comparable systems, so it is entirely wrong to say that it ‘costs’ £100mn.
When the state has repeatedly been proven to be inefficient, when compared to private provision of services, why on Earth should we have it overseeing every single aspect of one of the nation’s most vital assets?
This government will not allow the NHS to be thrust back into the hands of bureaucratic socialists that have nothing better to do than waste vast amounts of taxpayer money on their nonsense.
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Robin Cook:
Mr. Speaker, I heard quite a lot of dogma, but nothing that seemed to even resemble evidence or reason in that response. If the government can provide the opposition with any evidence that the internal market bill has given patients more satisfaction or has cut waiting lists or waiting times, we'll be all ears.
But this rant about the government being nothing but bad and the private sector the only virtue in this country leaves one worrying possibility: under this government, if it is to continue after the election, the NHS will be outsourced bit by bit until there's nothing left.