The risk to our NHS

The ConDem government’s Health and Social Care Bill is the biggest reform of the Natonal Health Service in its 63 year history – in fact, the Health and Social Care Bill is even longer than the Bill that set the NHS up in the first place. And this from the Party which said they would ‘stop the top-down reorganisation of the NHS’ in their manifesto.

These NHS reforms caused an outcry from health professionals and patients alike.

Earlier this year, after huge public pressure, the Government had to agree to a ‘pause’ in the Bill’s progress, to listen to the views of the public and the staff of the NHS. They claim that they’ve listened and learned – and a lot of the critics on the Lib Dem benches in the Commons have gone quiet. But have their proposed amendments to the Bill actually changed anything? Should we no longer be worried about what the Bill will do to our health service?

Yes, we should still be worried.

On the 13th June, the NHS Future Forum announced its findings from the ‘listening’ process.  The government wants us to believe that they have listened, and that the controversial aspects of the Bill have been consigned to a dustbin in the depths of the Department of Health – but that is just not true. We've tested the apparently 'new and improved' NHS Bill against the 3 concerns that it will lead to: 1) privatisation; 2) worse patient care; and 3) more red tape - and we've found that the Bill still fails on all three fronts.

Will the Bill still increase privatisation?

Yes. Instead of getting rid of the parts of the Bill that will encourage private companies to take over parts of the NHS, the government has just made the language vaguer. This gives the impression that the Bill no longer encourages private sector involvement, but in fact it creates even more loop holes that can be exploited.

Will the Bill still make patient care worse?

Yes. GPs will  be given the power to choose which services they provide in local areas. This will return the NHS to the post-code lotteries of the past – you might not be able to get access to the same services as someone who lives down the road from you, purely because you live within a different commissioning group. This is on top of the £20 billion of real terms cuts the ConDems have made to the NHS, despite David Cameron promising before the election he wouldn’t cut the NHS.

Will the Bill still increase red tape in the Health Service?

Yes. The Bill now includes even more quangos to be in charge of commissioning and regulation. This will undoubtedly mean more, not less bureaucracy. The Government’s listening exercise has also made this Bill even messier than it was before. They have amended it in a piecemeal fashion, papering over the cracks that they think made it unpopular. This means there are now huge contradictions throughout the Bill, for example about which parts of the NHS are responsible for providing and funding which services, This will make it harder, not easier, for the NHS to work efficiently – and it will increase the risk of the private sector moving in.

We believe that even after the ‘pause’ and the ‘listening’, the Health and Social Care Bill is still a huge danger to the NHS.

This Bill is rotten to the core – tinkering with some aspects to try to make it appear less threatening can’t change that. In fact, by making the language vaguer and trying to paper over the cracks, Lansley’s Bill could now be even more dangerous – creating a mess of loopholes in the NHS that allow private, profit-making companies even more access, and reduce the quality and equal access to care that was the founding principle of the National Health Service.

That’s why we’ll keep fighting this Bill, and why we need you to join that fight. Take action now to save the NHS.