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People are being forced to pay higher fees to go private - or go without a dentist altogether. This Government's creeping privatisation of our health service is resulting in wider inequalities in access to health care.

Kent Green Party press officer Steve Dawe commented: "Under Labour's Private Finance Initiative, or PFI, our new schools and hospitals have cost much more than they should have done, and taxpayers' money is lining the pockets of private companies instead of improving our public services.

"A recent study by Chris Edwards, an economist at the University of East Anglia, shows that PFI is so bad that it would be cheaper for the Government to buy back PFI hospitals than to continue to pay through the nose leasing them.

"As Green Party Deputy Leader, Adrian Ramsay, said at the recent Green Party Conference in Brighton: 'Funding new hospitals and schools through PFI is like buying your house on a credit card, rather than getting a mortgage. Labour's record of buying our public services on tick has left us beholden to the private sector for decades to come. That's why the Green Party is calling for an end to the costly PFIs and calling on the Government to buy back the rip-off PFI hospitals.'

Steve Dawe adds: "Greens will keep the NHS public; with public money supporting valued public servants to provide a public service of the highest calibre. Greens see beyond just treating symptoms; we want to see more emphasis on preventing illness and promoting a healthier society."