Passions running high on NHS reforms
Plans to shake up the NHS face their first major debate in the Commons later, as David Cameron mounts a defence of the government’s proposals.
Ministers intend to transfer decision-making powers over budget decisions from primary care trusts to GP consortia, in a bid to give medical practitioners more influence.
The bid to create a market dynamic has attracted huge opposition from health unions, however. A protest is expected in London today as MPs vote on the health and social care bill for the first time.
Mr Cameron, writing in the Times newspaper, said that the “freedom of GPs to choose whatever is best for their patients” represented “progress”, not “privatisation”.
He added: “Already our health outcomes lag behind the best in Europe.
“Without modernisation, the principle we all hold dear – that the NHS is free to all who need it, when they need it – will become unaffordable.”
Shadow health minister John Healey sought to fuel fears that patients could lose out as a result of changes over the weekend.
“The Tory-led government’s handling of the health service means patients in some areas are starting to see waiting times rising, operations delayed and services cutback,” he warned.
“This big re-organisation will pile extra unnecessary pressure on NHS services and staff.”
Mr Healey has also written to Lib Dem MPs warning them that “this is Conservative not coalition health policy”.
Meanwhile public sector union Unison has pledged to challenge the bill, which it describes as a “disaster of Titanic proportions”.
It fears the development of a postcode lottery, the ‘bleeding’ of money to private companies and “institutional chaos” leaving the NHS vulnerable to coping poorly with a crisis like a swine flu epidemic.
NHS Confederation, the umbrella employers’ organisation, has called for dialogue. Chief executive Nigel Edwards wrote in a message to workers: “In this country the debate is unhelpfully polarised, characterised more by assertion and dogma than by evidence.
“The issues seem poorly understood and opportunities to improve care could be lost unless we achieve a more constructive dialogue.”
