Two cancer specialists opposing NHS reforms visited Oxford as part of a 160-mile protest run from the Nye Bevan statue in Cardiff to the Department of Health.
Middlesbrough NHS consultants Dr Clive Peedell and David Wilson set off on their six-day run on Tuesday to raise awareness of the effects they believe the Government's Health and Social Care Bill will have on the NHS.
The bill, which is to be considered by the House of Lords in the coming weeks, would be the most extensive reorganisation of the NHS in England to date if passed, abolishing NHS primary care trusts and strategic health authorities. Between £60bn and £80bn of health care funds would be transferred to clinical commissioning groups, run by GPs.
On Friday afternoon the pair met with Summertown resident Tim Treuherz, 53, a retired lawyer with multiple sclerosis at Nye Bevan Close, named after the founder of the NHS.
Dr Peedell said: “The bill undermines the founding principles of the NHS and Nye Bevan would have been appalled by this. It completely undermines his vision for a comprehensive public service free at the point of delivery. The bill is clearly going to lead to increasing amounts of private sector takeover of public services. We will see more and more private companies delivering NHS care.
“This will happen over a period of years rather than months but we will see problems because those companies will really only want to take over services that deliver them a profit and that means that more simple procedures we be served rather than chronic illness and chronic care, which is much more difficult to manage. “
Tim relies on the NHS for the treatment of his condition and said: “Private companies are going to be allowed to take over hospitals and clinics and they are going to be providing the health services that they think are profitable rather than the health services that they think we need.
“I don’t trust private companies to deliver free universal health services for everyone. I have MS and I get first class services on the NHS at the moment. I can’t complain. I do not trust organisations like BUPA to provide those services to me free of charge.”
The runners were greeted by a dozen local campaigners with banners reading 'NHS Not for Sale' and 'Keep our NHS public.’ Campaigner, Sarah Lasenby, of Tawny St, said: “The NHS is the best value for the money in Europe, it’s better than Germany, it’s better than France. What are we doing going down the track of the American model. It’s important that we fight for the NHS.”
The runners also held a rally in Witney in the morning and delivered a postcard with the Bevan quote, “The NHS will last as long as there are folk left to fight for it”, to David Cameron’s Constituency Office.
Launching the bill in 2011, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "Modernising the NHS is a necessity, not an option – in order to meet rising need in the future, we need to make changes. We need to take steps to improve health outcomes, bringing them up to the standards of the best international healthcare systems, and to bring down the NHS money spent on bureaucracy. This legislation will deliver changes that will improve outcomes for patients and save the NHS £1.7 billion every year – money that will be reinvested into services for patients.
"This is the start of a cultural shift to a patient-centred NHS. The proposals set out today in the Health and Social Care Bill will strengthen the NHS for the future and make the changes that are needed for vital modernisation to put more patients and NHS staff in control."
