Order, Order

We turn now to a vote on the NHS Privitisation Motion.

NHS Privatisation Motion

This Senedd Cymru notes that

(1) The Government wants to end all private healthcare providers.

(2) The backlog in the NHS is increasing every year and the Government has no serious plans to fix it.

(3) Private companies in healthcare include more than just healthcare clinics and they provide a lot of services for the people of Wales.

This Senedd Cymru calls on the Welsh Government to

(1) Commit to no further nationalisation of private healthcare companies of any sort.

This motion was written by The Right Honourable u/model-willem KD KP OM CT CB CMG CBE PC MS MSP MLA, MS for Swansea East, on behalf of the Welsh Libertarians.

Opening Speech

Llywydd,

As the motion notes, the backlog in the NHS has been growing by the year which causes people’s health to further deteriorate. The Government’s response has been that the NHS has been underfunded, but that’s about it. The solution to the problems in the NHS is not to just throw more money at the problem, but by making radical changes to the system. The nationalisation of the NHS is just going to make the issues worse. The NHS cannot fix our healthcare problems right now in Wales and thus must change to ensure that people in Wales receive care that can actually make people better.

It also seems that the Government is forgetting that there are more companies involved in our healthcare system than only primary healthcare providers such as GPs or hospitals. There are pharmaceutical companies that make medicines or products for healthcare providers to use, there are people that are specialised in alternative medicine, researchers, people that for instance provide acupuncture and other treatments. These healthcare providers are essential to making sure that people stay healthy and should continue to exist.

The nationalisation of these services is going to increase bureaucracy in the healthcare sector, it’s going to force people to stop their own businesses and to work for the state. This takes away opportunities for these people and take away their businesses that they have worked hard for to create. This is going to be a turn towards the collectivisation that was also seen in countries like the Soviet Union.

Nationalising all businesses in the healthcare industry is also going to cost a lot of money, probably billions of pounds, money that the Welsh Government cannot easily access unless the UK Government is going to help them, which probably will not happen. This makes the entire goal completely unnecessary and unachievable, so we should just abandon it all together.

Link to the Debate

Voting on this motion will end at the close of business on 28th May at 10pm BST