Starmer: Reinstate our NHS as a fully public service

We’ve taken our demand that Keir Starmer commit to reinstate our NHS as a fully public service to Labour conference.

Now you can make sure he hears the message LOUD AND CLEAR.

Can you take 2 minutes right now to send him our letter?

Leader of the Opposition

Shadow Secretary of State for Health

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Subject

I am a potential Labour voter at the next general election, and I am contacting you to ask that you commit to reinstate our NHS as the fully public service your party founded it to be 75 years ago.
We have lived through the last 13 years of NHS underfunding, outsourcing and privatisation under 5 successive Conservative prime ministers, the effects of which are clear for all to see:
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<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">7.7 million people waiting for NHS care</li>
</ul>
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<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">272,000 people <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65687231">paying out of pocket for surgeries</a> last year</li>
</ul>
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<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The rapid growth of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/06/buy-now-pay-later-medical-loans-on-rise-as-desperate-patients-go-private-amid-nhs-backlogs">Buy now, pay later”</a> loans for healthcare - pushing people in our communities into indebtedness</li>
</ul>
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<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">And, an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/29/nhs-privatisation-drive-linked-to-rise-in-avoidable-deaths-study-suggests">Oxford University study</a> linking the outsourcing of NHS services to treatable deaths</li>
</ul>
I am calling on you to step up and be the hero that our country and our NHS need - commit to reinstate our NHS as a fully public service. 
The public will thank and reward you for it. An average of 86% of Brits, according to the 2022 <a href="https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/public-satisfaction-nhs-and-social-care-2022">Survey of British Social Attitudes</a>, continue to support the founding principles and values of our National Health Service. 
And, recent Survation/We Own It polling shows that 78% of the public, including a majority of Conservative voters, want our NHS fully publicly owned and delivered.
You shouldn’t do this only because it is what the public wants, but also because it is what will solve the crisis our NHS faces.
Private solutions can’t and won't fix the staffing crisis, long A&E waiting times or help the vast majority of those on waiting lists.
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<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The private sector does not have A&E - in fact, according to The Times, 550 people facing medical emergencies are<a href="https://x.com/ShaunLintern/status/1700778902530953451?s=20"> transferred from private hospitals to NHS hospitals</a> every month. </li>
</ul>
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<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The private sector trains no staff - in fact, they leech staff from the NHS who are <a href="https://chpi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/The-Bet-Against-the-NHS-October-2022.pdf">trained at huge public expense</a> by the NHS.</li>
</ul>
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<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The private sector does not help everyone - they cherry-pick the simplest and <a href="https://www.hsj.co.uk/finance-and-efficiency/leaks-reveal-two-thirds-of-private-hospital-capacity-went-unused-by-nhs/7029000.article">most profitable cases</a>. And even then, they saddle the NHS with all costs related to medical complications from their surgeries regardless of whether those patients paid out of their own pockets or were funded by the NHS.</li>
</ul>
Private solutions to this crisis will necessarily fail because the NHS has a fundamentally different interest to private companies. If all illnesses suddenly disappeared from Britain, our NHS would greatly benefit, whereas the private healthcare companies would suffer loss.  Our NHS cares about the health of our nation, private companies care to make as much profit as possible.
Our NHS was ranked the <a href="https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/jun/mirror-mirror-wall-2014-update-how-us-health-care-system">best in the developed world</a> until Conservative governments started cutting and privatising it. What our NHS needs is for politicians to put NHS patients before the profits of private companies. It is time to restore our NHS to a service we can once again be proud of.
I want you to commit to reinstate our NHS as a fully public service.
Thank you very much for your time.

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