KONP represents most campaign groups across the country and has produced the following statement about tackling corona virus:
Keep Our NHS Public believes that the damaging impact on the NHS of failed policies for the last ten years is a damning indictment of the decade of Conservative Government. This has undermined the ability of the NHS to respond to COVID-19 at the threshold of pandemic. A return to the founding principles of an NHS for all – embodied in the vision laid out by Nye Bevan in ‘In Place of Fear’ – would immediately strengthen our response to the COVID-19 threat.
… And it is a certainty as coronavirus spreads in Britain that the hardest hit will be among the working class, the poorest, the most vulnerable sections of society – including migrants excluded from free NHS care, the elderly, the disadvantaged and disabled.
The principles of a national health service – free at the point of use, available according to need, publicly funded and provided – are not only morally correct: they enable society to respect the universal right to healthcare, to share risks, to protect everyone without exception against contagious diseases – and by doing so they protect society as a whole. Those principles have never been needed more as we face the potential consequences of COVID-19.
End the charging of undocumented residents, including migrants, now and we take a giant step forward both for public health and humanity. This would restore universal access to the NHS. End outsourcing of NHS contracts, zero hours and insecurity for those staff placed outside the NHS and we enable the NHS to re-prioritise public service and publicly provided care. Commit to real funding increases to allow full staffing and restoration of bed losses and we will restore morale amongst our 1.5 million NHS staff.
A return to these principles, alongside a restoration of real-terms full funding plus funding to repair deficit damage, will guarantee that the NHS is the most efficient and effective health service once again. The people served by the NHS will then be the safest and best cared for – be they faced with coronavirus, giving birth or coping with any other health challenge.