Experts, doctors and commentators have today turned against David Cameron's plans to dismantle the NHS leaving cheerleading to The Sun newspaper.
Experts, doctors and commentators have today turned against David Cameron’s plans to dismantle the NHS leaving cheerleading to The Sun newspaper.
The cross-party Health Select Committee, chaired by former Tory Health Secretary Stephen Dorrell, issues its report on Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms today. The report notes:
“The Coalition Programme anticipated an evolution of existing institutions; the White Paper announced significant institutional upheaval. The Committee does not believe that this change of policy has yet been sufficiently explained.”
In a letter to The Times (£), 275 doctors set out their concerns and outline that the proposals are opposed by “the great majority of doctors”:
“As doctors we believe the Health Bill represents an irreversible step towards the dismantling and privatisation of large parts of the NHS. The Health Secretary is already implementing its proposals even though the Bill is not yet law. MPs and Peers must use this opportunity to avert a disastrous experiment with the nation’s healthcare…
“The wholesale re-engineering of the NHS and the destruction of primary care trusts (PCTs) is very expensive and totally unnecessary.”
The commentariat is equally scathing. Rachel Sylvester of The Times (£) questions whether the Prime Minister really is – as he claimed yesterday – the heir to Blair on health reform:
“Mr Cameron is keen to position the reforms as the fulfilment of Tony Blair’s agenda … but the NHS reforms go in the opposite direction. Mr Blair came to the view that the key was to give more choice to patients: people can now decide whether to have their operation in a state-run or private hospital. Mr Lansley has decided that all the power should be handed instead to GPs.”
In a Financial Times op ed (£) titled ‘NHS reform could become PM’s poll tax”, the Financial Times, Philip Stephens sets out that “Mr Cameron has somehow got both the public policy and the politics badly wrong”. Polly Toynbee in the Guardian says that the reforms will “blow apart the unified NHS as a service and turn it into a purchasing agency” while the Independent’s Steve Richards sets out why the policy is as much David Cameron’s as Andrew Lansley’s and argues that “the policy marks the end of the NHS”. He goes on to warn:
“Mr Cameron did not put his proposals to the electorate last May. Instead he promised there would be no more big reorganisations of the NHS, insisting that there had been enough of those. He must have known he was planning the biggest reorganisation in the institution’s history, so the lack of candour highlights the degree to which Mr Cameron is committed to his NHS crusade. He was willing to risk being exposed as duplicitous in order to win power and then press ahead.”
Turning back to the legalese, the lack of a mandate is also noted by the Select Committee:
“The Committee was surprised by the change of approach between the Coalition Programme and the White Paper. The White Paper proposes a disruptive reorganisation of the institutional structure of the NHS which was subject to little prior discussion and not foreshadowed in the Coalition Programme.”
The cheerleading is left to The Sun who praise Cameron’s “bravery” and the ever loyal Telegraph who despite admitting that the reforms are a “gamble” claims that they will deliver a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a more efficient and responsive NHS”.
35 Responses to “Experts, doctors and commentators turn on health reforms”
payamtorabi
RT @leftfootfwd: Experts, doctors and commentators turn on health reforms http://bit.ly/ifJebu reports @wdjstraw
Simon Landau
@Anon reminds me of Colonel Blimp. In his world everyone is incompetent and so nothing changes in his view. His prescription then becomes “what we need is a pointless sacrifice.” In the case of the NHS it is too important to peoples lives to discuss it in troll terms. If he wants a revolution fine, let him go out on the streets. If he wants change managed to ensure improvement then he must take the practitioners with him. It is on that charge that the government is bang to rights.
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Anon E Mouse
Simon Landau – I have personal experience of this just this week. Partner goes private (Healthcare via Unison) is seen and treated within 6 days.
Business partner (both roughly the same age) has waited since June last year on the NHS and is due in on Friday but that isn’t guaranteed and the hoops that she had to jump through you wouldn’t believe.
In your world Simon it appears you care nothing for the people treated under the current system or you would want better cancer outcomes – why not tell me if you think those treated under Labours farming out to private companies care where the operations were carried out?
You display the typical dogma of some socialist super state type wish and why wouldn’t you want things to improve for patients?
If these practitioners don’t like it tell them to work somewhere else. Either get with the program or move on but with GP’s on £113K a year a doubt they will.
Try coming up with something constructive Simon Landau. You do Labour no favours…
Trevor Cheeseman
For the all the moaners on the right, including ministers who love to subtly rubbish the health service in their speeches, the fact is satisfaction with the NHS is at an all time high.
The government’s British Social Attitudes survey reported recently that in 1997, only a third of people (34%) were satisfied with the NHS. Yet by 2009, satisfaction had nearly doubled, and stood at two thirds (64%).
The politics of all this will be interesting however: with no support amongst NHS staff groups at this early stage, the Coalition now faces several years drip feed of bad news – cuts, service restrictions, wider regional variations, bed closures, hospital mergers and growing private sector influence. “I’ll cut the deficit,not the NHS” will come back to haunt DC.