WARRINGTON North Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate Stefan Krizanac has accused Labour of “shocking hypocrisy” over NHS privatisation – and he has the support of deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.
Cllr Krizanac (pictured) quizzed the deputy prime minister on the party’s policy on the NHS at the Liberal Democrat Spring conference in Liverpool
He said: “Nick Clegg was very critical of Labour’s claims that the Coalition Government was hell-bent on privatising the health service.
“In 2010 the percentage of contracts going to the private sector was 5 per cent yet in the five years of this government it has only increased to 6.6 per cent – thanks to Liberal Democrat opposition to privatisation. In the last four years of the Labour Government it went up 2 per cent.
“It was Labour that wasted £250m on setting up Independent Sector Treatment Centres in private ownership. Our local one, at Halton, was owned by a Canadian company but was closed down and lay idle for several years. This was a terrible waste but under the Coalition Government it was taken back into NHS ownership and now provides excellent treatment.
“The Private Finance Initiative used by Labour was another waste of money and the expensive scheme at nearby Whiston Hospital continues to cast a financial shadow over our own hospital in Warrington.
“Only the Liberal Democrats are committed to funding the NHS with the £8 billion that NHS England says is needed by 2020. Our Minister at the Department of Health, Norman Lamb, and his predecessor Paul Burstow, have done excellent work in bringing the NHS and Social Care together. This together with preventative medicine has to be the way forward.
“I really welcome the announcement by Nick Clegg that an extra £1.25 billion is going to be allocated to mental health services over the next five years. This will benefit hundreds of children and adolescents, as well as adults, in Warrington and fits in well with the Liberal Democrat manifesto pledge to put mental health on the same footing as physical health.”
