Some 50 students attending a debate on healthcare policy last Friday voted narrowly in favour of a motion supporting the privatisation of the NHS.
A debate hosted by the Healthcare Management and Politics Society (HeMP) saw speakers representing Labour and the Conservatives go head-to-head on healthcare policy in a rare display of student-led debate and discourse at UCL.
The second motion debated produced the most controversial judgement, with a 27-21 majority voting in favour of “Funding the NHS through methods other than taxation and supporting private funding.”
Conservative debaters, and conservative-orientated floor speakers, advocated for bringing the private sector into the NHS to solve the organisation’s problems, with one student remarking that “the private sector is here to be capitalised [sic].”
Despite the banner behind them, both Conservative speakers explicitly stated that they were not formally affiliated with the Conservative Party.
Medic speaker Nilay Sah explained to The Cheese Grater that “I’m not a part of a political society. What I believe in is that we should be debating things, exercising opinion, and coming to really constructive solutions.”
Their arguments convinced a majority of the audience, with Cheese Grater correspondents observing a disconnect between medical and non-medical students in the room, with the former voting overwhelmingly in support of the motion.
The first motion discussed included “This house does not believe in the new government’s ability to successfully reform the NHS”, which saw students debate current government healthcare policy, specifically regarding new investment for healthcare in the budget. The house voted largely against the motion, with it being carried by a visible majority.
Within the debate there was a wider discussion on how the NHS should be reformed, with Labour students arguing that the government needs to look beyond budgets, and ultimately evaluate where money is spent, echoing the rhetoric of current health secretary Wes Streeting.
The third motion, “This house would slow the roll-out of Physician Associates (PAs)”, highlighted the importance of platforming specialists in debates on major institutions like the NHS.
Many students were not aware that PAs existed, let alone that they were a source of controversy.
The NHS states that “Physicians Assistants support doctors in the diagnosis and management of patients.” However, students in the room felt that PAs are overstepping their role and lack regulation, which led to the majority voting in favour of slowing the roll-out.
When asked about the event, debate moderator and HeMP member Azsvin Mariathasan said “The whole point of this event was to educate people and connect people who wouldn’t have spoken to each other.”
A similar sentiment was carried by the President of HeMP, Oliver Nash, who noted: “This is the first type of event like this I have done in my four years at UCL.”
He added: “Especially on the medical side of things, there hasn’t been enough.”
It was clear that there is an appetite for more debates of this kind, having students who are well-versed in the medical sector providing their insight into the NHS allowed for a higher quality discussion.
Kieran Green, Chair of Goldsmiths Labour Society and the Labour speaker on the night said the event “was a good opportunity to pull politics students out of our bubble, to speak with people whose policy is actually going to impact.”
Likewise, Sah noted that the event’s success was derived from “bringing people from medical backgrounds, [and] political backgrounds [together], with interdisciplinary community is what makes UCL amazing.”
While there were several farcical moments – such as the Tory claim that Boris Johnson understood the risks obesity posed to the NHS because he was in an “obesogenic environment” – a respectful tone was preserved throughout the debate. Each candidate spoke eloquently at length and often received applause afterwards.
Interestingly, there was broad agreement on Tony Blair’s effectiveness in reforming the NHS and Wes Streeting’s potential to do much the same across the debates. Audience participation was also frequent, with a wide range of viewpoints from varying degrees being presented and responded to.
Kieron Hakimnia, a third-year medical student and Labour speaker on the night, told reporters: “Coming together in this multidisciplinary fashion allows us to learn each other’s perspectives and areas we don’t know much about.”
