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SHADOW health secretary Andy Burnham will ring the alarm bells today over a vicious Con-Dem plot to flog off vital NHS services, including for cancer patients.
In a speech in Manchester Mr Burnham will blow the lid of the coalition’s plan to outsource clinical services before the general election and tie the hands of a future Labour government.
“Contracts are being signed that will run for the five years of the next Parliament and beyond,” he’s set to say.
“This is not acceptable. Contracts like this will tie the hands of the next government in a crucial area of public policy.”
Sinister ministers are even plotting to throw cancer patients to the wolves, with privateers being offered a 10-year contract worth £1.2 billion for providing cancer services in Staffordshire.
A five-year contract worth £800 million for the care of older people in Cambridge is also up for grabs and lasts the whole of the next Parliament.
Mr Burnham will challenge Tory Prime Minister David Cameron to put off the plan until after the next election and dredge up Mr Cameron’s pledge last time that there would be “no top-down reorganisation” of the NHS.
“He needs to be reminded that he has never been given the permission of the public to put the NHS up for sale in this way,” he will add.
Mr Burnham has written to NHS England’s chief executive to ask that he does not allow any further contracts to be signed until the general election unless it would threaten patient safety.
