During the huge Save the NHS rally in London last Saturday (February 3), the placard that most caught my attention was one saying “We can either have Brexit or the NHS. We can’t have both.”
Readers will remember that, prior to the EU Referendum, the Leave Campaign promised a huge Brexit bonus of £350 million a week to spend on the NHS, while the Remain Campaign highlighted risks to our national economy and to the NHS losing essential EU staff (dubbed Project Fear).
However, what voters weren’t told were some obscure but vital things like: the €3.5bn contribution to the NHS made by the European Investment Bank since 2001; the dangers to cancer patients of leaving the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom); the consequences for patients of leaving the European Medicines Agency; the drastic implications for medical research; and wholesale privatisation of the NHS if we enter into a bilateral trade deal with the US.
Unfortunately, our government is so obsessed with trying to muddle through the Brexit process – even though the Cabinet still has no shared idea of the ultimate outcome they’re seeking to negotiate – that they’ve completely failed to notice that the NHS will be biggest loser from any sort of Brexit.
The future of the NHS matters hugely to us locally.
So, Leave voters who care about the NHS need to consider whether “taking back control” (whatever this means) really is more important to them than preserving a successful economy and our much-loved NHS.
Alan Meekings
via email
