A BATTLE has been launched to restore the founding principles behind the NHS and halt creeping privatisation.

The National Health Service Reinstatement Bill is due to have its second reading in Parliament early next year.

It was tabled by Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas, who has called on MPs from all parties to back it.

There has been growing anger at sweeping changes made to the NHS in Sussex and nationally which have led to more private companies taking over services.

Opponents have said this goes against the whole ethos of the NHS and more focus should be spent on supporting existing services instead.

Health bosses have also been struggling to meet savings targets while dealing with rising prices and a growing demand for services.

Council funding cuts have increased pressure on community services and beds, putting hospitals under more pressure.

Ms Lucas MP said: “The NHS we love is facing an existential threat, with a quarter of a century of creeping marketisation bringing increased fragmentation and inefficiencies into our health service.

“I tabled the NHS Reinstatement Bill because I believe that it’s time to take a stand for our most valued public asset.

“I’m honoured to be presenting the bill with such strong cross-party support but to take the campaign for a truly public NHS to the next level, more MPs from all parties need to back it.”

The bill aims to roll back NHS privatisation and reinstate its principles of being truly public, fully protected and free at point of delivery.

It would reinstate the secretary of state’s responsibility for the health of UK citizens, something which was removed in the controversial Health and Social Care Act of 2012.

The bill would also abolish bodies such as NHS trusts, NHS foundation trusts and clinical commissioning groups, allowing commercial companies to provide services only if they were essential to patient welfare and the NHS could not do so itself.

Peter Roderick, barrister and one of the bill’s authors, said: “Unless the Westminster Parliament passes a law to remove the market from the NHS in England, the top-down disorganisation introduced in 2012 will continue, services will be reduced and piecemeal devolution will fragment the system further.

“Unfortunately, most MPs don’t support the bill so the chances of it becoming law before the next general election are very slim.”

Brighton's Royal Sussex County Hospital accident and emergency consultant Rob Galloway said: "The NHS has been damaged by the 2012 bill and interest of big business has become more important than the interest of the patients."

The Government has said the NHS needs change in order to cope with the growing number of people living longer .

Ministers said keeping the NHS running as it was, was unsustainable and unaffordable and efficiency needed to be improved.

The bill has been supported by MPs from Labour and the Liberal Democrats as well as from members of the British Medical Association.