Write a comment
Workers Party Regional Spokesperson Nicola Grant is calling on all Northern Ireland MPs at Westminster to put pressure on the Labour Government to stop the agreement with America on increasing drug prices by 25% that Donald Trump has been boasting about at the World Economic Forum.
Trump's trade team has asked for a deal that would let US pharmaceutical giants hike up the National Health Service medicine prices. Any such deal could cost the NHS a staggering £1.5 billion.
The Workers Party has expressed concern about the whole approach the health minister is adopting in the running of the health service. Despite Labour promises that they would not allow the health service to suffer any further cuts to staff and services, those promises have been short lived.
Ms Grant said support services are under threat of being privatised in some hospitals, and the government has not learned any lessons from the past failures of previous privatisation schemes that cost the service more money and delivered worse clinical outcomes. "We already have cases of people not getting lifesaving medicines because of costs, imagine would it be like if the pharmaceutical companies are allowed to increase the cost of medicines," she said.
It is clear from statements made by Trump that he wants more access for American companies to the National Health Service, which means wholesale privatisation across all services and specialist services, according to Ms Grant.
She concluded her remarks by asking whether people really want the healthcare system to become like America where millions of people are denied access to medical treatment and cannot afford to pay for the most basic medicines. "It is time the government stopped pandering to the ridiculous whims Donald Trump is notorious for and started to rebuild our National Health Service in accordance with the core principles and values which created it."
