THE DISPATCH
HEALTH
Meet the doctor who gave up her career to fight NHS privatisation
A campaign group set up to protect the NHS is gearing up for the battle of its life – defending the NHS from privatisation.
EveryDoctor, born out of a Face-book group for medics, is leading the charge against the Health and Care Bill which it says threatens the future of the health service.
The bill would allow private companies to sit on the boards of local Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), giving them a say over the provision of services that are, and are not, provided to patients.
In an exclusive interview, Every-Doctor founder Dr Julia Patterson told The Big Issue she believes the government has “intentionally underfunded the NHS to pave the way for privatisation”.
She said: “The NHS is seen as a broken system and that allows people in their minds to think that perhaps there is another way. And so when privatisation is brought up, some patients will say ‘well, perhaps that is the best thing because clearly it’s not working.’”
The Big Issue led coverage of the Bill passing its third reading in the House of Commons last month. It is now with the House of Lords, and Patterson says the fight is far from over.
This is a government that “does respond to public pressure, they do make U-turns”, she says.
Soon after the news broke of the
