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The NHS and TTIP

There is a lot of confusion about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the NHS. The NHS Confederation has produced a dedicated web page Here relating to TTIP.

My own view is that the NHS should be kept out of TTIP. I don't personally believe that it is in TTIP at the moment. On the NHS Confederation Web Page there is a lot more information. I will extract one part of this below, but really people should read the web page (referred to above) if they are interested in more information.

Specifically on the web page it says: "Jean-Luc Demarty, Director General for Trade at the European Commission, wrote to Dr Sarah Wollaston, Chair of the House of Commons Health Committee, on 11 December 2014, giving further, more explicit assurances that the EU intends publicly-funded health services to be excluded from the TTIP agreement. Publicly-funded services delivered by private, or third sector organisations will also be protected. EU practice is that "ratchet" mechanisms "locking in" liberalisation will not apply to public services, so that future governments will be free to change policy direction. "

It may be that the TTIP agreement is never concluded. However, I also beleive that we need an open judicial process rather than a ISDS type system. The ECJ has its flaws, but at least it is an open system of justice.

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