A POLITICAL row has erupted following a protest against ‘creeping privatisation’ of the NHS outside Warrington Hospital.

Hospital bosses announced they are pausing the availability of an NHS ‘price list’ service last week after a backlash.

The site had been accused of ‘creeping privatisation’ of hospital treatments through the My Choice service.

Labour’s Warrington North MP Helen Jones and Warrington South MP Faisal Rashid raised concerns in Parliament after the news circulated on social media.

And on Saturday, Mr Rashid, Cllr Amanda King and Momentum Warrington joined campaigners to protest outside the hospital, on Lovely Lane.

Cllr King (LAB – Great Sankey South) said: “CCG’s are organisations set up by the Conservative and Liberal coalition Government in 2012.

“They’re supposed to plan and commission healthcare services to their local areas.

“They drive the Government’s policy that has been enabling the outsource of NHS contracts services.

“The private sector has been making ever bigger inroads into several key areas of NHS care, notably general practice, community services and mental health.

“Our NHS was set up in 1948 and free and the point of delivery based on need, not wealth which is embedded as our national treasure.”

But Tory Warrington South parliamentary candidate Andy Carter has hit back.

He says the protest demonstrates an ‘ongoing weaponisation’ of the health service by Labour politicians in the town.

Mr Carter said: “I listened with surprise to the comments made by Faisal Rashid MP and Helen Jones MP in House of Commons on Thursday that ‘our hospital was demanding £18,000 before they carry out a hip operation, they were simply repeating a story which appeared in a tabloid newspaper earlier in the day.

“A story which wasn’t true, where the hospital had told the journalists it wasn’t true and where the Labour politicians knew it wasn’t true.

“The hospital doesn’t make decisions on who receives treatment, deciding who is treated by our NHS is completely separate to the NHS trust that provide our care.

“The pricing list they focused on was launched in September 2018, has never been used and is to give options for those who don’t meet the criteria for treatment under NHS commissioning rules.

“Our MPs surely know how the NHS works, if they don’t, they need to spend time researching before standing up and making claims.

“What makes me even more angry is the blatant hypocrisy of Labour politicians, who stand on Lovely Lane claiming to be the party of the NHS.

“This is the same party who were responsible for the decisions which led to the first hospital being privatised in the UK.

“Protesting outside a hospital also shows a complete lack of understanding for the people using the hospital, the relatives of the sick and elderly and the staff who work there.

"Having recently spent time there with a very sick relative, the last thing you want when leaving the building is to be faced with a very noisy group of people waving placards."

Mr Rashid has responded to Mr Carter.

He said: “I am disappointed but not surprised to discover that rather than criticising the ongoing privatisation of our NHS, the Conservative Party candidate for Warrington South sees fit to criticise those fighting to prevent it.

“Because make no mistake: these measures are the direct outcome of nearly a decade of crippling NHS underfunding by Tory-led Government.

"The introduction of a ‘price list’ for treatments that were previously free of charge on our NHS is blatant privatisation.

"If Conservative politicians cannot see this then I seriously question their suitability for elected office.

"I am glad that the Warrington and Halton Hospital Trust have acknowledged this by halting their proposed ‘My Choice’ programme, which would have charged patients over £18,000 for a hip and knee replacement.

"This shows what we can achieve when we fight to protect an NHS which is always free at the point of use.

“I am sure it is blatantly obvious to my constituents why I was protesting outside Warrington Hospital: I will not simply stand idly by and see the sick and vulnerable in our community have to worry about self-funding basic treatment and care.

"To suggest I was protesting out of a lack of respect or understanding for NHS patients is disingenuous in the extreme and frankly insulting.

"The Tories are running our NHS into the ground and I will continue to oppose them at every turn."