Burnham calls for scrapping ‘dangerous’ UK-US NHS drugs trade | health policy

Andy Burnham is being urged to tear up the UK-US trade deal on medicines as health organizations and doctors’ groups warn it is dangerous and puts the profits of drug companies ahead of the lives of NHS patients.

Ministers have defended the deal, signed last December, as a way to help UK exports of medicines to the US avoid tariffs and give patients access to potentially life-extending medicines that would otherwise be denied them.

But they have been accused of caving in to pressure from Donald Trump to US demands to spend billions more pounds a year on drugs supplied to the NHS. Last week, the Guardian reported that the deal would force the NHS to divert £45 billion from essential services to pay for new drugs, leading to more than 200,000 avoidable patient deaths.

Now Burnham, who is expected to succeed Keir Starmer as Labor leader and prime minister within weeks, is facing calls to tear up the deal and focus instead on securing the long-term future of the NHS.

In a letter to Makerfield MPs seen by the Guardian, 19 health groups called on Burnham to scrap the contract, amid growing concerns its terms could be “catastrophic” for patients.

A total of £44.7 billion of NHS cash will be diverted from the health service by 2036 to pay more for new drugs under the contract, unless additional funding is provided to cover the additional costs, the analysis found.

Reduced NHS spending on services will have a negative impact on the country’s public health, resulting in 229,000 excess deaths by 2036, according to academics from the University of York, the University of Liverpool and New Zealand’s Christchurch Hospital.

In a letter organized by the SOS NHS Coalition, the organization called on Burnham to “decisively halt” recent policies and commit to rebuilding the NHS.

Signatories, including Medact, Doctors’ Association UK and Doctors in Unite, are calling on Burnham to reconsider PFI contracts for nearby medical centres, recent NHS job cuts, the expansion of private providers across the health service and Palantir’s NHS contract.

Dr Tony O’Sullivan, co-chair of Keep Our NHS Public and a retired consultant paediatrician, said: “Donald Trump’s calls for higher drug prices will drain an estimated £45 billion from the NHS over the next decade. With patients waiting longer than ever for treatment, handing billions more to America’s pharmaceutical giants is like pouring gasoline on a fire and trying to put it out.”

“The NHS is already on life support. Around 16,000 people die needlessly every year due to delays in emergency care, maternity services continue to fail and millions are stuck on waiting lists. The last thing the NHS needs is to be forced to raise more revenue for multinational pharmaceutical companies.

“We call on Andy Burnham to meet with campaigners and listen to those with deep experience of the NHS and social care. His transition to government is an opportunity to draw a line under policies that put corporate interests ahead of patients, restore public trust and staff morale, and recognize that health, care and education are the foundation of a thriving society and economy.”

Hope Worsdale, of patient campaign group Just Treatment, said the deal was signed by Mr Trump “to inflate the profits of pharmaceutical companies” and would lead to “avoidable deaths” for hundreds of thousands of NHS patients.

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“This is a deeply shocking betrayal of the NHS and the British public. Andy Burnham has said this is the last chance to save Labour. It is also the last chance to save the NHS,” she said. “As chancellor, he must give the NHS the life-saving investment his predecessors failed to prioritize, scrap dangerous pharmaceutical deals and stop private companies taking over our NHS. Patients deserve and ask for more than that.”

Andy Burnham, who was appointed shadow health secretary alongside Ed Miliband when he launched the party’s health manifesto in 2015. Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Burnham did not respond to questions from the Guardian about her position on the UK-US trade deal or whether she would scrap it.

During her final term in government, Burnham was Minister of Health. Shortly after taking up the role in 2009, he announced that the NHS would become a “preferred provider” of NHS care in a move to reverse the growing privatization of health services.

A year later, he gave the green light to a PFI deal for the Royal Liverpool Hospital. The project, run by facilities management company Carillion, missed its completion deadline by several years and ended up costing £300 million more than originally budgeted. Carillion later went into liquidation.

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