Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)

- Hansard -

This is the moment I have been waiting for. An unprecedented number of representations have been made to me by letter, telephone, email and at my surgery from constituents of mine deeply concerned about the Government’s proposed NHS reforms. Those representations include a petition supported by almost 2,000 doctors, nurses, NHS patients and members of the public in my constituency, including Dr James Chan, one of the doctors at York district hospital.

The petition states:

The Petition of residents of York, and others,

Declares that the Petitioners believe that the Government’s health reforms will break up NHS services and that these reforms will result in business motives cutting deeply into the fairness, quality and value of the service at the expense of patient care; that the Petitioners believe the reforms will lead to a postcode lottery, with patients’ age, medical condition and home address affecting the quality of care they receive; that cuts to frontline jobs and services will lead to longer waiting times; that money will be wasted on the NHS market bureaucracy, draining it from patient care; and that there will be a big increase in private companies running the health service for profit.

The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to reconsider the reforms so that patients remain at the heart of the NHS.

And the Petitioners remain, etc.

[P000917]