Just what the doctor ordered? The new political party hoping to save the NHS

Tomorrow, cancer expert Clive Peedell will dress up as David Cameron and run from Leeds to Sheffield alongside a fellow oncologist posing as a giant poodle called Cleggy.

Political observers will instantly spot the unsubtle metaphor at the heart of this peculiar publicity stunt. But almost as important will be lay observers picking up on their overall message: there’s a battle on to save the soul of the National Health Service.

Consultant Peedell and his companion, Dr David Wilson, are leading figures within the National Health Action party, a group of medics and sympathisers so incensed by the coalition Government’s changes to the NHS – changes which came into force this week – that they intend to field anti-privatisation candidates in forthcoming parliamentary elections.

In the meantime, events like this weekend’s “Cleggython” are intended to raise their fledgling profile. Just five months after forming, their motivation is simple: to reverse the implementation of market forces in the health service which, they argue, will eventually lead to lower quality, less choice and longer waiting lists.

“It was clearly stated in the coalition agreement that there would be no more top/down reorganisation of the NHS,” says Peedell. “Yet within a couple of months of being in power they brought this in. So they completely misled the public.

“There was also huge opposition from the medical profession, from the BMA to the Royal College of Nursing. And yet they still pushed the legislation through. In our opinion this was an abuse of the democratic process and we felt the only way to tackle that abuse was through the ballot box.”

A former cancer doctor at Cookridge Hospital in Leeds, Peedell, who still lives in North Yorkshire, admits the NHA will never be a party of power, only influence. How much influence depends on where they field their candidates – they say the numbers could be as high as 50 – and what MPs they’re up against.

Constituencies traditionally represented by arch Blairites (who the NHA also blame for introducing free market practices into the NHS) could be on their hit list. But the most likely candidates are Conservative and LibDem seats. Their primary aim is to avoid splitting the Left-leaning vote, since Labour has pledged to repeal last year’s offending Health and Social Care Act which ushered in the changes. They’re still crunching the numbers, but Peedell anticipates releasing a list of targets within weeks, and says it might well include several constituencies in Leeds and Yorkshire. He says: “Even if we only manage to get one or two MPs – which is still a long way off – we could actually be highly influential because it’s odds-on that they (our MPs) would be allowed to be part of the Health Select Committee and they could be influential within the wider parliamentary system.

“But what we can also do is raise the debate among the public, in fact we’d like to make it the number two issue at the next general election, the first issue is obviously going to be the economy, but we want to make the future of the health service a very close second.”

He acknowledges the challenge they face, particularly at the next election when the effects of the changes on frontline services are likely to be minimal. By 2015 they need to have started winning the argument, but within five to 10 years Peedell insists the average user of GP surgeries and hospitals will notice a real difference in service.

“A patient going into their surgery after the changes were implemented this week won’t notice any real difference – it’s not an overnight disaster,” admits Peedell. “But ministers are saying the NHS will still be ‘free at the point of use’ and maybe it will be, but the number of core services that are free will shrink over time. We’re already seeing this with things like varicose vein surgery, and next you’ll see them saying, ‘You can only get one hip done at a time’. Waiting lists will go up dramatically as well. When that happens more people take out private health insurance.”

Will we see a return to the NHS of the Thatcher years? “Yes, but it will be worse. It won’t be a free health service, it will only be core services that will be provided free. The poorest will have to wait for a rump service and the wealthy will be able to afford good care. It undermines all the founding principles of the national health service. That’s the source of all this vitriol.

“If you have a big hospital trust like Leeds with a massive budget, you’ll find private providers willing to offer certain services, but they’ll only do the profitable stuff. What will happen is that they will suck income from the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which has to provide a whole range of services to the whole community. But because money is being sucked away they may have to cut other services in the end.

“The private providers can cherry-pick and there’s no way of stopping that. The costs of providing all the required services are too much for the private health care providers. Instead they will just provide conveyer belt services that are quick, easy and make a profit. Then it’s ‘Ker-ching!’ and off they go. The providers will disappear if a service becomes unprofitable and when that happens the NHS will have to pick up the tab.”

If Peedell sounds radicalised, you’d be right. But he isn’t a militant leftie either. In fact he comes from a true blue, privately-educated background. The battle lines he has drawn aren’t between Labour or Conservative but between the private and public sector which, he maintains, are largely incompatible when it comes to providing a truly national health service. Why? Because he believes money often compromises patient-doctor trust.

He says: “Being at Leeds in my junior doctor years really showed me the importance of the public service ethos, about working together as an organisation. We were working for what is at the heart of what we do – the patient. That’s fundamental and crucial to me. But as soon as you bring financial transactions into the relationship you destroy it.

“And that’s precisely what will happen with these reforms. Patients might start to think, ‘Why aren’t I being referred to the hospital?’ or ‘Why aren’t I being given such and such a pill? Is it because of financial reasons? Is it because the GPs are now in charge of the budget?’

“It could happen in a hospital too, ‘Why aren’t I getting this new cancer drug, is it because of the funds and the contract with private providers?’ And they’d be right to ask that because the market doesn’t want good local services it wants services competing with each other – that’s crazy when you’re treating someone’s condition.”

And Peedell should know, for the past nine years he has been consultant clinical oncologist at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesborough, a role he’ll have to juggle with being co-leader of the NHA should the party gain political traction.

With over 1,000 members already, they intend to fund their campaign through donations and fundraising events. However, he knows the NHA’s task is huge.

“These plans have been in the Tory heads of Oliver Letwin and others for 20 or 30 years,” says Peedell. “So a new party trying to get a short public message out there about the changes is a challenge. It ain’t easy. But we have to explain why this is a disaster now, why we need to reverse this privatisation before reversing it becomes impossible. Of course, if I happen to be wrong in five years, I’ll disappear. Or I’m quite happy to come back and do another interview with the Yorkshire Post saying: ‘I got it all wrong!’ But I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’s obvious where we’re headed.”

Clive Peedell and Dr David Wilson will run from the Department of Health building in Leeds, tomorrow at 9am. For more details visit: www.nationalhealthaction.org.uk

CURRICULUM VITAE

BORN: June 3, 1972

LIVES: Bedale, North Yorkshire

FAMILY: Married with two children

EDUCATION: Magdalen School College, Oxford. Southampton University, degree in medicine

CAREER: Consultant clinical oncologist, James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, (2004 to present); Specialist registrar in clinical oncology, Cookridge Hospital, Leeds, (1999 to 2004); Junior doctor in A&E, Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon, (1996 to 1999); Medical rotation training at Northampton General Hospital, (1995 to 1996)

PLUS: Medical and surgical house jobs at Royal South Hampshire Hospital, Southampton.