Plight of the NHS should top election agenda - MP

THE NHS should be the top issue at next year’s general election, Oldham MP Michael Meacher has warned.

The Oldham West and Royton MP fears the Tories are trying to privatise the NHS and outsource it to create a US-style healthcare system.

Mr Meacher said the American system is rife with scams and billions is spent trying to stamp out fraud.

He said: “Along with reversing austerity, the NHS should be number one issue at the next election. The UK is going to get a capitalist medicine American style, unless the Tories are stopped.”

Mr Meacher said America had an “exceedingly complicated and wasteful healthcare system” and said in New York that 110 staff scrutinise $55bn of annual payments and 137,000 providers. The system is open to false claims, he added.

“The US spends a colossal $2.7 trillion on health, 17 per cent of the American Gross Domestic Product,” Mr Meacher said. “That is twice as expensive per head compared with the NHS.”

Mr Meacher added: “We do not want this in Britain.”