Doctors have voted overwhelmingly to urge the Government to remove health and social care services from a controversial trade agreement between the EU and US
"If there is anything resembling an NHS by the time this treaty is negotiated it won't survive," one GP warned.
The debate took place on the first day of the British Medical Association's (BMA) annual representative meeting in Liverpool, where doctors argued that the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was designed to meet the interest of private corporations and will open up the health service to privatisation by US firms.
Dr Gregor Venters, a GP from Edinburgh, said: "TTIP seems set up to help big business.
"Private corporations could use the process to bully governments into dropping legislation to improve food standards, for example.
"It will have a deleterious effect on public health and make privatisation of the NHS not only possible but probable. The least we can expect is the exclusion of health and social care and public health policy from the process."
Dr Henry McKee, a GP from Belfast, was introduced to delegates as being against the motion - but told them it was because "it doesn't go far enough".
"Freedom of information requests of other countries which have entered into such agreements show exactly how damaging this treaty will be to both the social fabric and the health economy of this country," he said.
"If there is anything resembling an NHS by the time this treaty is negotiated it won't survive this treaty.
"The correct motion is to kill this treaty dead, not to tolerate it sneaking in and mugging us."
All but one delegate voted in favour of urging the Government to remove health and social care services and public health legislation from the TTIP negotiations.
Prime Minister David Cameron has previously said there is "no way" the agreement would have any impact on the NHS.
Meanwhile, doctors have called for the Government to provide better support for war veterans amid a "fundamental misunderstanding" that their care is the responsibility of charities.
Dr David Pring said reserves, including doctors and nurses, were particularly in need and veterans' care should be parliamentary-funded and resourced.
Paying tribute to soldiers who died in the Afghanistan conflict, he said: "Many that returned suffered multiple injuries, amputations, and major long-lasting physical trauma, and many suffered wounds that are not visible, but caused them and their families considerable grief with mental illness and post-traumatic stress."
He told delegates that reserves were more likely to feel that people at home would not understand what they had been through, received less support from the military, and had greater difficulty in adjusting to civilian life.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article