Privatisation of the Scottish NHS: TTIP and independence

Abstract

Neil Bennet (Sept 6, p 843) has given stark warnings about irrevocable future privatisation of the National Health Service (NHS) as a result of the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This is an even more serious issue for Scotland, as people decide how to vote on its independence on Sept 18, 2014. The Scottish NHS would inevitably be drawn into TTIP and privatisation, because the TTIP agreement is with the UK Government in Westminster. There is no opt-out possible for the currently devolved Scottish NHS. The planning behind UK involvement in TTIP appears to go back to Margaret Thatcher’s Centre for Policy Studies in the 1980s, designing reforms to open up public services for privatisation. Throughout, either Westminster has not thought about implications for NHS Scotland and the devolved health administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland, or has considered TTIP a covert vehicle for forcing the privatisation agenda. Either way, Scotland has no voice in matters of great importance to its people. For the same reason, Plaid Cymru (Welsh party) has urged the UK Government to make the Welsh NHS exempt from TTIP. The NHS in Scotland is now very different from that in the rest of the UK. It is increasingly under threat because of funding cuts from Westminster. The plan for the UK to enter TTIP, without an opt-out clause for NHS Scotland, is symptomatic of the way Scotland has been treated in general, and an even more potent reason for Scottish people to be able to elect governments with full economic and bargaining powers through independence.