Ambulance Driver Scared Of NHS Privatisation Had This Powerful Message For MPs
31 October 2019, 11:42
An ambulance driver had this powerful message for politicians about the possible sale of the NHS to private companies: "Nobody should be buying bits of the NHS. It's ours."
The Daily Mirror reports today that Boris Johnson is planning to sell parts of the NHS to American companies as part of a trade deal with Donald Trump.
But this ambulance driver, speaking anonymously to James O'Brien, said he feared for the future of the Patient Transport Service he works for, which takes vulnerable people to hospital appointments.
His voice cracking with emotion, he said: "I got told last week that the Patient Transport Service has been bought out by a private company. I'm absolutely gutted and all my colleagues and bosses are too.
"I've got colleagues in the south whose services have been taken over by private companies and they've got no level of patient care, right down to the uniform.
"I'm worried that if PTS is taken over, will blue light also be taken over in the future? It's a scary prospect."
And he had this message for any politician who is considering additional privatisation of the health service: "I don't this anybody should be buying part of the NHS for their own gain. It's all of ours.
"Every single one of us pays into it."
James summed up the call: "In emotional terms, for me listening to you, I always think of the private care workers who don't get paid between jobs. It's like the clock starts when they arrive at a house and they've got 10 minutes to do 20 minutes work and then they have to get to the next house and if they get stuck in traffic, they're not being paid and they end up being paid less than the minimum wage for an hour where they were at work, but somehow not at work.
"That's what I hear of as a downside of privatisation."
