I thank Plaid Cymru for tabling this debate today, and I’m pleased to take part. UKIP firmly believe that the NHS should forever remain in public hands and be free at the point of delivery. We’re also totally against TTIP, and campaigned heavily against it. As long as the patient is seen and diagnosed quickly, the outcome is the important factor here, as long as the service is free to the patient. Without the participation of the private sector, large sections of our health and social care sector would not function.

We wouldn’t have the most important tool in our health arsenal, the most used therapeutic intervention: medicines. The majority of our medicines are researched, developed and produced by the private sector, which contributes billions of pounds to the UK economy, employing thousands of people and providing life-saving drugs to NHS patients. In the last three years, the pharmaceutical industry in the UK has paid over £1 billion pounds towards the pharmaceutical payment regulation scheme, which improved the flow of new medicines to NHS patients, allowing patients to get access to treatments that are widely available in other European countries.

The independent contractor model is the cornerstone of our primary care sector. GPs and GP practices are private sector contractors and companies providing healthcare to NHS patients. Without the private sector, social care provision would disappear across large parts of the country, as large numbers of care homes are privately run. Without the private sector we wouldn’t have access to innovative health technologies. A proton beam therapy centre will be opening later this year, giving NHS patients access to this innovative cancer treatment. The centre, just outside Newport, is run by Proton Partners—a private company set up to bring proton beam therapy to the UK. You may have read in the press over the weekend about a new treatment for burns victims, the SkinGun, which utilises stem cells from donor skin and grows a new layer of skin on the patient, ending painful skin grafts and extensive scarring. This technology was developed by a private sector company.

It is clear to me that private involvement in the NHS is not only welcome, but necessary. For the NHS to thrive, it must be a true collaboration between the public sector, the private sector and the third sector. Patients do not care which sector provides much needed treatment, as long as it is the best available treatment and that they don’t have to pay for it. We need to abandon the dogma that equates to public sector is good, private sector is bad. Collaboration is the most important thing and patient outcomes is of paramount importance. Without the private sector our NHS wouldn’t survive, so UKIP will therefore be abstaining on Plaid’s motion this afternoon. Diolch yn fawr.