We must restore the NHS as a safe, comprehensive, publicly funded, publicly delivered and publicly accountable integrated healthcare system by reversing the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and supporting an NHS Re-instatement Bill, to halt and reverse NHS privatisation. We will do this by focussing on thirteen actions.

Restore the duties and responsibilities of the Secretary of State for Health to provide universal and comprehensive healthcare in England. Ensure less political interference in the day-to-day running of the NHS.

Halt privatisation, end competition and scrap the market within the NHS with its associated huge and unnecessary costs and bureaucracy. Reinstate the NHS as the preferred provider of healthcare and remove the requirement to tender out contracts to the private sector.

Increase NHS funding by a minimum of 4% per year and ensure that resources and staffing levels are consistent with maintaining patient safety and high quality care and that the value of staff pay is maintained. 4% is a 'stand-still' figure. Because of population growth, an ageing and growing population and constant, amazing improvements in health care, techniques, treatments, medicines, equipment - and outcomes! - the NHS does need more than the rate of inflation. It is worth it. For example Cancer Research UK says: "Cancer survival in the UK has doubled in the last 40 years." To settle less than 4% in funding increases means cutting services and thus reducing optimum health care and survival rates for patients.

Listen to patients and staff to improve the NHS. Establish a Health Ombudsman at the head of local independent health commissioners acting on concerns expressed by patients and staff. Reduce the NHS and Department of Health dependence on management consultants and increase the influence of healthcare professionals, staff and patients.

End financially driven A&E and hospital closures and re-configurations. There must be evidence-based, clinical reasons which have the support of the local population and the affected professional staff. Suitable and accessible alternatives must be in place before any closures take place.

Oppose the EU/US Free Trade Agreement (TTIP) and similar agreements as they threaten not only the NHS but the health and well-being of the public.

Stop further Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deals and remove the PFI repayment burden from individual hospital trusts. The Government should renegotiate on the basis of 'fair value'. The Government can borrow money to settle these crippling mortgage 'deals' at vastly lower rates than the private companies to whom hospitals are currently indebted.

Use the purchasing power of the NHS to get the best deals for all NHS supplies, equipment, and pharmaceuticals for the benefit of patients. The NHS is the fifth biggest employer in the world, according to new research, making it bigger than India's railways and China's state-owned energy network. It is still dwarfed by McDonald's and Walmart but remains the only British employer that can claim a spot in the top ten list.

Abolish prescription charges, which are effectively an unfair tax on people of working age with chronic, long-term conditions. http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h28/rr-4

Ensure 'parity of esteem' for mental health services, strengthen maternity services and address the crisis in General Practice (family doctors) with an urgent injection of funding.

Introduce free personal social care for the elderly and disabled, and integrate NHS health provision and local authority social care. Because they are separate, cuts to local authorities mean social care packages are frequently delayed, causing 'bed blocking' or delayed discharge of elderly people confined to a hospital bed when they are fit to be cared for in a non-acute setting.

Prioritise and focus on public health and preventative medicine, including measures to reduce alcohol consumption and smoking.

Make the social determinants of health an absolute priority in the design and development of all government policies.

NHA BANBURY