Drain appeared at the conference with none of the left make-up which he occasionally uses. His keynote speech was devoted to extolling the achievements of this Labour Government. But by the time he had got to the Community Land Act he had to stop, drowned out by heckling and shouts of Haven't you heard of the cuts?' and 'One and a half million unemployed is most certainly an achievement'.
The private practice pushers awaited the result of the debate on the National Health Service at the NALGO conference with bated breath. It was the first test for the campaien tor incependent medicine. And it failed.
The Campaign is sponsored by the drug monopolies, the private health care provision merchants and the British Medical Association, and has so far spent &100,00U. Inis is peanuts to the drug companies, however, which last year spent £32 million on advertising in the UK. Most of these surplus funds were derived from the NHS. For example, Fisons pav £2.300 per ton for the raw mater. ials for their anti-asthma drug Intal, which is then sold to the NHS for £2,800,000 a ton.
The NHS is also bled dry by private practice. Apart from siphoning off descuts on the bureaucratic basis that this would give the right wing in the union a chance to reverse policy This failure to play a campaigning role in the union, and a sectarian refusal to take up actively initiatives which come from sources other than NAG itself, helps to explain the defeats suffered by the left in the recent elections - in which Will Fancy of Lewisham, the leading figure in NAG, lost his seat on the NEC. perately needed staff to private hospitals private practice inside the NHS is subsidised out of total expenditure. At New Charing Cross hospital this amounts to around £50 a week for just one bed.
It was facts like these which persuaded the conference to reaffirm union policy and relect proposals to allow private practice outside the NHS, by 843 votes to 643.
But if this is to mean anything, the NALGO leadership will have to devote more than the pitiful £500 they have so far spent on the campaign. More importany mey nave a clear res ponsibility to mobilise all their members s une neart service to black private practice, and to implement fully proposals accepted by the National Executive Committee for a campaign against the stanuing or planning permission to Dri vate nospitars
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NO TO PRIVATE PRACTICE!