ANKARA
Over 100 senior doctors signed a damning open letter in the liberal-left Guardian newspaper Wednesday, accusing the British coalition government of failing "to keep its NHS pledges."
"History will judge that this administration’s record is characterized by broken promises, reductions in necessary funding, and destructive legislation, which leaves health services weaker, more fragmented, and less able to perform their vital role than at any time in the NHS’s history," read the letter, using the acronym for the National Health Service.
The harshest criticism in the letter -- which was signed in a personal capacity by 140 doctors -- was aimed toward then health secretary Andrew Lansley’s 2012 Health and Social Care Act, which the signatories said "is already leading to the rapid and unwanted expansion of the role of commercial companies in the NHS. Lansley’s Act is denationalizing healthcare."
The letter cited a statement by the Royal College of General Practitioners published last year that said that the wait to see a GP is a "national crisis."
"The NHS is withering away, and if things carry on as they are then in future, people will be denied care they once had under the NHS and have to pay more for health services," the letter said. "Privatisation not only threatens coordinated services, but also jeopardises training of our future healthcare providers and medical research, particularly that of public health."
The signatories had a clear solution in mind to the problems currently faced by the NHS.
"The way forward is clear: abolish all the damaging sections of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 that fragment care and push the NHS towards a market-driven, 'out-for-tender' mentality where care is provided by the lowest bidder," the letter said. "Reversing this costly and inefficient market bureaucracy alone will save significant sums."
In a thinly-veiled swipe at the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, which has governed the U.K. since the 2010 general election ended in a hung parliament, the letter ended by saying, "We invite voters to consider carefully how the NHS has fared over the last five years, and to use their vote to ensure that the NHS in England is reinstated."
Last week, a group of around 100 business leaders signed a public letter in the center-right Daily Telegraph newspaper supporting Conservative Party economic policies and arguing that a Labor victory would "threaten jobs and deter investment."
As the party that founded the NHS, Labour has placed the country’s national health service at the center of its election campaign.
The U.K. general election will take place on May 7, 2015.
