SWEEPING Government plans to reform healthcare funding in the UK has prompted Labour councillors in York to table an emergency motion against the changes.

This week’s full meeting of City of York Council will see members of the Labour group oppose what they see as the privatisation of the NHS, by calling on the council’s chief executive to write to the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, opposing the reforms.

Labour group leader Coun James Alexander said: “The coalition Government clearly has plans to begin the privatisation of healthcare and strategic health commissioning, and it will come as no surprise that Labour will fight this tooth and nail.

“Giant strides forward have been made in recent years in the NHS with reductions in waiting times, record investment in NHS hospitals and improved performance by those hospitals.

“The new proposals lack any proper public accountability.”

Fellow Labour councillor, Tracey Simpson-Laing accused the Tories of “taking a hatchet” to the NHS and said the plans had appeared in neither Conservative nor Lib Dem manifestos. She said: “The healthcare system under the ConDem coalition will become a two tier system, with postcodes becoming far more of an issue in the level of service people receive, and we cannot and will not accept this.”

The motion will now come before the full council when it meets in the Guildhall on Thursday.

Coun Steve Galloway, Lib Dem head of City Strategy, said his party had not yet discussed it’s response to the health secretary’s reforms, but said any official objections from the council would have to follow a report from officers.

Conservative group leader, Coun Ian Gillies, said: “Layers of plutocracy introduced by the Labour Government is being dismantled, and decisions affecting patients are to be made by professional doctors, and not politicians or administrators.