A PROTEST group opposed to the privatisation of the NHS has been launched in an attempt to block prospective contracts for medical services being awarded to the commercial sector.

A new alliance has been launched on Teesside to fight future tenders bids put out by Hartlepool & Stockton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The CCG, which represents all 40 GP practices across the area and covers a population of nearly 300,000 patients, said there were no plans to privatise its services.

Barbara Campbell, a nurse at University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton said: “My motivation for getting involved is that I am a carer not an income generator.”

“We all love the NHS, we don’t want it taken away. We do not want it privatised, we have to do everything we can to stop the Government selling it off.”

Ms Campbell recently took part in the recent People’s March which saw thousands of activists retracing the footsteps of the historic 1936 Jarrow March.

The three week campaign organised by a group of Darlington women, dubbed the 'Darlo Mums', called for a halt to what they viewed as the ‘creeping privatisation’ of the NHS and a national debate on the future of the health service.

Maggie Hazlehurst, senior organiser at union Unite which organised the meeting held at the Willows Community Centre in Tilery, Stockton, said £80bn from the NHS was going to private companies.

The alliance wants local MPs to pledge that they will repeal the Health & Social Care Act 2012 and put pressure on the Government to keep health out of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

"As far as I can see there’s no place for profit in the NHS,” she said. “If they are hard pushed for finances to deliver services now, how can there be money left over to give to shareholders? We want to build an alliance in Stockton in anticipation of these bids coming."

A spokeswoman for Hartlepool & Stockton CCG said: “There are no plans to privatise the CCG. It is not doing anything differently in terms of delivering services that hasn’t been done in the NHS for a number of years. It opens up the tenders to the commercial sector and works with private investors to get a better deal for patients.”

Alex Cunningham, Labour MP for Stockton North, added: “I think it’s right that people in the community are extremely worried. There is no doubt that there have been more and more services privatised over the past four-and-a-half years. It’s important that people are made aware and campaign.

James Wharton, Conservative MP for Stockton South refused to comment.