With Hull's local NHS under increasing threat, a Hull MP tomorrow co-sponsors a Commons Bill to repeal the Coalition Government's NHS privatisation policy - and to put patients first instead.
Hull North MP Diana Johnson is one of the key backers of a Commons Bill being introduced in the House of Commons by Eltham Labour MP Clive Efford.
The National Health Service (Amended Duties and Powers) Bill would scrap David Cameron's competition rules framework for the NHS and make sure that local NHS patients are always put first.
The Tory-led Government has forced hospitals to open themselves up to a privatisation agenda that prioritises spending on competition lawyers and market tendering exercises, instead of patient care.
Hull North MP Diana Johnson said: "The Coalition's policy is to let multi-national private companies cherry-pick the most profitable NHS services, regardless of patient need, and spend more tax-payers' money on economic regulators and competition lawyers.
"In Hull, we've already been seeing frontline NHS services suffering, largely as a result of this Government's changes with A&Es over-stretched even before the Winter, GP appointments harder to get and a 92% increase in cancelled operations.
"Labour wants to stop Cameron and Clegg's creeping privatisation and instead ensure that our NHS once again puts patients before profits and commercial vested interests.
"I'm one of the co-sponsors of Clive Efford's Bill because it will ensure that patients in Hull, and their medical needs, are put first again - so vital after the £3bn that has been wasted on the unnecessary NHS reorganisation that accompanied the privatisation drive.
"Given that without Lib Dem MPs' votes in the Commons the Tories would not have been able to force through their privatisation rules in the first place, I will be interested to see whether Lib Dem MPs back Labour's Bill to rescue our NHS.
"If elected next year, a Labour Government would start to rescue the NHS with our £2.5bn Time to Care package. This would fund new staff, including 20,000 more nurses investment the Tories, Lib Dems and the anti-NHS UKIP will not match."