Andy Burnham is being urged to scrap the UK-US trade deal on medicines as health organisations and doctors' groups warn it is dangerous and prioritises pharmaceutical company profits over the lives of NHS patients. In a letter coordinated by the SOS NHS coalition, 19 health groups call on the expected next Labour leader and prime minister to make a 'decisive break' with recent policy and commit to rebuilding the NHS.
Details of the Deal and Its Consequences
Ministers have defended the agreement, signed last December, as a way of helping British drug exports to the US avoid tariffs and giving patients access to potentially life-extending drugs. However, critics argue the deal was caved in to US demands under pressure from Donald Trump, forcing the NHS to spend billions extra on drugs. Analysis suggests the NHS would have to divert £44.7bn from essential services to pay for new medicines by 2036, leading to 229,000 excess deaths according to academics from the University of York, the University of Liverpool, and Christchurch hospital in New Zealand.
Health Groups’ Demands
Signatories including Medact, the Doctors' Association UK, and Doctors in Unite urge Burnham to rethink PFI arrangements at neighbourhood health centres, recent NHS job cuts, the expansion of private providers, and Palantir's NHS contract. Dr Tony O'Sullivan, co-chair of Keep Our NHS Public and a retired consultant paediatrician, stated: 'Donald Trump's demands for higher drug prices are set to drain an estimated £45bn from the NHS over the next decade. At a time when patients are waiting longer than ever for treatment, handing over billions more to US pharmaceutical giants is like trying to put out a fire while pouring petrol on the flames.'
Impact on Patients
Hope Worsdale of the patient campaign group Just Treatment said the deal was signed with Trump 'to inflate drug company profits' and would condemn hundreds of thousands of NHS patients to avoidable deaths. She added: 'It's a deeply shocking betrayal of the NHS and the British public. Andy Burnham has said this is the last chance to save the Labour party. It is also the last chance to save the NHS.' Burnham did not respond to questions from the Guardian about his position on the UK-US trade deal or whether he would seek to scrap it.
Burnham’s History with the NHS
Burnham served as health secretary in 2009, announcing the NHS would be the 'preferred provider' of NHS care to reverse privatisation. However, a year later he approved a PFI deal for Royal Liverpool hospital that cost £300m more than budgeted and faced delays; the contractor Carillion later went into liquidation.
