The buried NHS London report paints a devastating picture for women and children
The Tories think that their falling popularity among women is mostly a problem of presentation. Yet you only need to glance at the buried NHS London report to see that the impact this government is having on the lives of women and children is substantive, long-term and very real. It paints a devastating picture for London, and that may explain why Andrew Lansley is doing everything he can to keep the national Risk Register hidden. The NHS London Risk Assessment document warns that this government’s health plans could lead to “preventable harm to children” and expectant mothers being “exposed to unsafe services”.
Yet, with this government, this damning indictment has surprised few people. It’s no wonder we’re seeing plummeting support for the government. The country is crying out for a proper government strategy to stop the disproportionate impact of this government’s policies on women and families across the country. The Conservatives need more than a PR job. The bulk of jobs lost in the public sector have been women’s, the bulk of the benefits cut are those that mostly women rely on, and we are seeing a series of health policies that are casting a shadow over the future of women and children’s health.
It’s not just the attack on Sure Start centres, David Cameron’s personal failure to honour a personal promise to introduce an extra 3,000 midwives in England, or increasingly unaffordable childcare and the withdrawal of financial support. But the last few weeks have confirmed that this government is doggedly pursuing health policies that expose women to unacceptable levels of patient care, and economic policies that are an attack on women’s very economic independence. Female unemployment has risen by 43,000 to 1.09m – a 23 year high. And according to the experts, it’s going to get worse.
Meanwhile, several billion pounds will have been wasted on a pointless reorganisation of the NHS, when midwives are trying to provide safe, high quality care against an ever rising birth rate, more complex cases, midwife shortages and a squeeze on NHS spending.
Increasingly, it seems as though David Cameron has turned his back on British mothers and also the health of British children. The government must change course, and that is the message that Labour’s health team and Ken Livingstone is sending to David Cameron this afternoon at our health rally. The government’s health plans make such fundamental changes to the NHS that the right action is for the Government to drop the Bill entirely and that is what we are calling on them to do.
As with so many other policies, David Cameron’s promise to support the NHS shows that this is a government that was elected on the rhetoric of opposition, but is now being found out by the realities of government.
This article was first published at LabourList: http://labourlist.org/2011/11/buried-nhs-london-report-paints-a-devastating-picture-for-women-and-children/
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