5,000 names on petition

“Sorry, purchaser provider split is over 10 billion per year, not 2!!! Govt docs show it at a possible 14% of NHS budget now. When introduced it raised non-care costs up by an extra 10%”

“Terribly sorry - dreadful mistake there - the purchaser/provider split costs over 10 billion per year (not just2!) and it was designed under Thatcher and brought in under Major. It was the first time the BMA were not involved in NHS policy. And no Govt has bothered to give a s___ what the health professionals think since - especially this one - hence the local problems”

“Yes, the process of abolishing the PCTs and using the new form of social enterprise (CICs) was started under Labour. They continued on from John Major's reforms of the NHS and the most expensive cost of all to care; the purchaser/provider split (cost, 2 billion a year currently).
As for the cost of the legal challenge, the PCT was given every opportunity to prevent a court hearing. Over and over they were advised by Mr Lloyd's solicitor to simply halt the outsourcing of the services and consult the staff and public properly. That was all they had to do. But they would not.
The issue re Stroud, is simply that it happened to be a Stroud group and Stroud councillors that picked up on the issue. The campaign, in fact, is county-wide and the team collecting signatures is based everywhere, especially the Forest of Dean.
Finally, the added cost of outsourcing to a CIC, as compared to remaining a publicly-owned body, would cost a hell of a lot more every single year than the one-off cost of a court case. Tendering, too, would be expensive. But the Govt have told the PCT that the setting up of a NHS trust is totally open to them. This is what the campaigners said all along.

How much cheaper it would have been if the PCT had just done this in the first place. How much better if the PCT had just consulted the staff properly, instead of telling them what was to happen, with no chance to express an opinion fully or feel as though their voices were even of consequence”

“Unfortunately, it was the last Labour government that started this process and not the current CONDEM party.

How naïve of Stroud to think this just affects them. The 2 options in question affect the whole county. The last action by "Stroud Against Life" forced judicial review costing the tax payer and NHS purse £100Kplus – money that could have been spent on healthcare locally. All that did was force the private competition machine much closer.

As Lord Mayor Stroud mentions in the Stroudy only news – visit http://tinyurl.com/bvjofr6 and vote for what you believe is best for the whole county. You'll notice there isn't a Stroud only Me Me option, just a countywide one.

Happy voting”

“The NHS does not belong to the Tory Party. They have no right to sell it off.”