HEALTH campaigners gathered at the office of Conservative MP Jackie Doyle Price to hand over a petition. Over 2,400 residents, concerned by the imminent closure of the Thurrock walk in centre, signed the petition which calls on their local their local MP to demand that David Cameron use his veto to protect our NHS from the US trade deal TTIP.
A spokesperson for the petitioners said: "The health campaigners originally invited Conservative MP Jackie Doyle-Price to meet them outside the "doomed" Thurrock NHS walk in centre to collect the petition on Friday 12th of June. However, Jackie Doyle-Price chose not to attend. She did not come to collect the petition or send her apologies, denying the crowd of her constituents, local councillors and even the MEP for East of England that gathered there the chance to speak with their MP.
"This is the second time that Jackie Doyle-Price has ignored her constituents. Earlier in the year hundreds of Thurrock residents raised “Stop the NHS Sale” estate agency style boards on their property, to show their clear opposition to the NHS being included in the EU-US trade deal called TTIP, which threatens to lead to the irreversible privatisation of the NHS.
"TTIP is an EU-US trade deal being negotiated behind the closed doors, between EU bureaucrats and delegates from the United States. It is the largest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated and threatens to make privatisation of the NHS irreversible by giving the profits of corporations’ precedence over national lawmakers. TTIP would grant American multinationals, or any firm with American investors, the power to sue the government if it ever attempted to take privatised health services back into public ownership.
Ella Vine concluded: ”We had a fantastic support for this campaign. The overwhelming majority of people we spoke to strongly oppose further privatisation of the NHS and urge the government to take NHS out of the TTIP. We call Jackie Doyle-Price MP to listen to the voices of thousands of her constituents and to take a firm action on it. Since becoming the government’s Whip, Ms Doyle-Price has become a part of the government responsible for its decisions and we hope that the wishes of Thurrock residents will be respected”.
