The Tories Yes, they do want to smash the NHS

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ITH LONDON SOUTH LONDON SC its own). authority considers appropriațe. 'commercial rented accommoda- amount, as Roy Hattersley and *NHS equipment and supplies to out, to a plan for asset-stripping be made available to the private the NHS and funnelling NHS reprofiteers 'on such terms as the sources into private medicine. 'IF IN doubt, brazen it out' has been the Tory motto as labour leaders point to evidence of their plans to dismember the NHS and siphon off public sector resources to line the pockets of private practitioners, clinics and hospitals.

Norman Fowler, Secretary of Harry Sloan reports on Tory plans to decimate the health service State for Social Services, hastily published the confidential . paper leaked by Labour as if there was nothing to hide: and he made no attempt to disassociate from its proposals.

These include: *The sale of 'surplus' NHS land and closed hospitals, wards or wings to the private sector. *Urging NHS authorities to contract with nursing homes to take elderly NHS patients - at a cost of £135-200 per week. This, it is argued, would free' NHS beds and 'enable unsatisfactory geriatric accommodation to be closed'. *Joint initiatives' between the private seçtor and the NHS with both sharing the profits and the risks' *More equipment - particularly high technology equipment' could be made available by the private seçtor for joint use (where Tory cash limits prevent the NHS acquiring sufficient equipment of or's the South London Women OSC *Private companies could provide tion for nurses' The proposals clearly do Gwynneth Dunwoody pointed This is in line with the vague formulation in the Tory Manifesto, which talks evasively of 'promoting closer partnership between the state and the private sectors' . Health Minister Kenneth Clarke insisted that the document 'Does not contain anything which is inconsistent with the speeches we have been making and the policies we have been putting forward for the past 12 months'.

The Tories have been absolutely consistent in their relentless drive towards privatisation of the NHS, paving the way for intensiWe need not only to stop the Tory plans in their tracks, but also to fight within the labour movement for socialist policies and a committed leadership that can put a halt to private medicine, defend and restore the NHS, and - through workeis' inquiries into local needs and the fight for expanded health provision - eliminate the waiting lists and shortages of geriatric and other care which at present dog the Health Service.

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