Five reasons I’m terrified of what Boris Johnson might do to the NHS His views about the NHS alarm me – Dr Kailash Chand

All my life I have campaigned that it is a fundamental right to receive free healthcare at the point-of-need for all Britons. This right exists in this country regardless of your age, health, wealth, race and gender. But I think the views and policies of Boris Johnson are a threat to that concept.

There is so much about Johnson that appals me – racism, lies, misogyny.

But his views about the NHS alarm me. These are five reasons why:

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Charging and reform

Mr Johnson has previously called for people to be charged to use the NHS, undermining its essential principal of being free at the point of need.

In a piece published in 1995 for The Spectator, Johnson wrote: “There is a moral point. If NHS services continue to be free in this way, they will continue to be abused like any free service. If people have to pay for them, they will value them more. Above all, there is an economic point. In a very modest way, this extension of private funds into the NHS would help the Chancellor’s straitened circumstances.”

Johnson was recently filmed at a private garden party telling Conservative members the NHS absolutely needs to be reformed. Asked by one party member what he would do with the NHS, Johnson told the crowd the health service was a “crowning glory” but was “not getting the kind of support, and indeed the kind of changes and management that it needs”, suggesting he as prime minister would aim to undertake an overhaul of the health service.

NHS and trade deals

In 2014, Johnson lauded a TTIP trade deal with the USA as “Churchillian”. This was the very trade deal that lawyers and campaigners warned posed a very real risk to the NHS.

Johnson has expressed an interest in pursuing a Canada style trading deal with the EU. His chief purpose for doing so is it would free the UK up to negotiate a trade deal with the USA.

And we know what that could bring. TTIP documents leaked in 2016 showed US lifestyle and technological corporations were interested in tariff free access to certain goods in the UK. In addition, firms linked to the wider healthcare sector wanted the same competitive tender rights enjoyed by UK corporations.

Johnson’s admiration of Donald Trump may mean he would be keen to sign up to a bargain-basement trade deal with the US – a shoddy agreement that would slash workers’ rights, and privatise the NHS.

Sin taxes

Johnson has now vowed to halt any expansion on so-called “sin taxes” until a review is complete, which include unhealthy foods and drink. His promise appeared to be designed to enthuse Tory members concerned about unnecessary restrictions imposed by the “nanny state”. But it also seemed to cut across months of painstaking work carried out by Matt Hancock’s department – and Johnson’s own decision to impose a 10p levy on sugary drinks at City Hall when he was the Mayor of London.

Meanwhile, growing evidence shows ‘sin taxes’ on alcohol, tobacco, and soft drinks have been effective in reducing non-communicable diseases, as highlighted in a new Lancet taskforce report.

Franco Sassi, a professor at Imperial College Business School, told WIRED these type of taxes are “probably the single most important policy supported by evidence that public health agents across the world are promoting.”

Hard Brexit and a workforce crisis

In my view, a Brexit with no-deal or with a hard Brexit as advocated by Johnson would compound the existing crisis in the recruitment and retention of medical staff threatening the delivery of care, particularly in deprived areas.

My real worry is Johnson-led government would use a workforce crisis following a Brexit with no deal, together with an NHS funding crisis, to tell the British public that free universal healthcare is not affordable, to then justify washing its hands of the NHS.

All of this should be a warning siren. A red flag to the NHS that things could get worse for the poor, the elderly and the “have-nots”.

It’s a real concern to the entire country – we should not trust him with the NHS.

Dr Kailash Chand is a retired GP and PCT chair. He was given an OBE in 2010 for services to the NHS