Hackney doctors collect 4,000 postcards in protest at NHS proposals

Doctors and patients from Hackney delivered more than 4,000 signed postcards protesting against the government’s plans for the NHS to Whitehall last Thursday.

The campaigners presented the cards, which have been collected at surgeries and in the streets across the borough, to the Department of Health.

They oppose the coalition government’s Health and Social Care Bill, which plans to place healthcare budgets in the hands of doctors.

Hackney GPs Dr Deborah Colvin and Dr Nick Mann were joined by Labour MPs Meg Hillier and Diane Abbott for the delegation.

“We believe that the bill will damage the doctor-patient relationship by raising the question, ‘Can we afford this?’ every time a GP makes a treatment decision with a patient,” explained the two doctors.

Ms Hillier, Labour MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch, accused the government of failing to act on advice from medical experts.

“It wants to put price before patient care and enforce competition law on the NHS for the first time,” she said.