If you are considering which party to vote for and, like us, want to retain our NHS as a service that is healthy, well-funded publicly owned, publicly run and free, then please do not vote for the parties who voted in the Health and Social Care Act. The Coalition Government, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, including, shockingly Lynne Featherstone, voted for this Act, which takes up to 49% of hospital beds for private patients, allows for up to 49% of the NHS to be privatised, took away the the duty to provide health care from the Secretary of State for Health, made local hospitals like ours apply for Foundation Trust status ( see below)  and set up local commissioning groups that enable privatisation. They also voted to freeze NHS pay. And that's just a tad of what they have done to NHS and staff.