Labour to target 'rip-off' private health firms
Shadow Health Secretary will also claim only Labour can 'rescue' the health service
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Your support makes all the difference.Labour will vow to strip private firms of health contracts where they can be shown to be “ripping-off the NHS”.
Diane Abbott, the Shadow Health Secretary, will also promise on Tuesday to rein in the private sector by promising to break expensive private finance initiative (PFI) contracts where possible.
The “excessive charging of the Big Pharmaceutical companies” will also be in Labour’s sights if it wins the next general election, she will say.
A focus on investing in public health, better mental health services and restored bursaries for student nurses and midwives will also be promised.
And the ‘N’ will be put back in NHS, with the Health Secretary once more responsible for the health service - a responsibility removed in the controversial 2012 Health Act.
In her conference speech, Ms Abbott will echo Tony Blair’s famous 1997 “24 hours to save the NHS” warning, by arguing Labour will have to rescue it again.
She will say: “Labour will restore the NHS to a properly functioning service after years of Tory cuts, damaging reorganisations and privatisations”.
“As the party which founded the NHS, Labour will once again be obliged to come to its rescue after a Tory Government has once more pushed it to the brink. Labour will restore it.”
Ms Abbott will also attack the Government for “not having a childhood obesity strategy”, after watering down proposed crackdowns on sugary drinks and fatty foods advertising.
And she will highlight the King’s Funds’ warning of a looming £22 billion funding gap in the NHS, which will “deepen the already severe crisis”.
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