April 24 brought Lord Philip Hunt’s motion against the Health and Social Care Act Secondary Legislation Section 75 - a rarely achieved format in the Lords, only allowed in exceptional circumstances.
April 24 brought Lord Philip Hunt’s Pray Debate fatal motion against the Health and Social Care Act Secondary Legislation Section 75 – a rarely achieved format in the Lords, only allowed in exceptional circumstances.
Lords on all sides had been inundated with letters and emails of concern – not just, as Shirley Williams said in what must count as one of the most disingenuous speeches this parliament, due to “a blizzard” of distortion “extensively spread via social networks”, but because more and more of the general public had gained an understanding of basic procurement law.
If the law says that a Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) may allocate a clinical service to a sole provider as long as none other are capable of running the service, then it stands to reason that the CCG will be more concerned with how to prove that when challenged than just going for the simple route of selecting their own long term preferred provider.
Far from the 40 staff of Monitor being equipped to block a legal avalanche, or Regulations 2 and 3 overriding errant 5, this is a lawyers-cum-privatisation charter which can only be stopped by CCGs undertaking the very tendering the coaltion are pretending they are preventing – whilst of course setting them up to do exactly that.
The Lib Dems decided that they would once again portray themselves as saviours of the faulty elements of the legislation – although some stared ahead in a rather fixed manner whilst Lord Clement-Jones and Shirley Williams spoke of the wondrous things they had done and of the terrible injustice in criticising their efforts.
Perhaps they had been hypnotised. Earl Freddie Howe turned his head from his front bench to fix his gaze upon Baroness Williams as she spoke – in part needy, in part threatening. Hopefully he had a crick in his neck afterwards.
They continually stated that their own changes in March, meant no change since 2010 – conveniently ‘forgetting’ that the introduction of the Health & Social Care Act has changed everything. If no change – why bother with the Act or Section 75 at all? Do they think we didn’t notice? Probably.
Lord Warner (of Lewisham ) was overtly the most audacious of the night – not for him the mealy mouthed meanderings of the Lib Dems. Everything he has been saying in private, came to the fore in publicly disowning Labour’s efforts. This man is all about competition and the ‘managed market’ – he clearly stated he was “with Earl Howe” before sinking low in his seat to mutterings of disapproval. Let us hope that the party soon disowns him in return.
Although Lord Hunt presented an excellent case, the whipped Lib Dems declared solidarity with Earl Howe, which sadly meant he really knew that it was lost before he started. The Tories had dragged out all of Thatcher’s old contemptibles and from the conspiratorial looks being shot across the chamber, it was evident that Shirley Williams had worked her ‘magic’ on a couple of key cross benchers – where there were also notable abstentions.
The most moving speech of the night came from Lord Owen – who spoke strong and true and visibly elicited more than a solitary tear when he mourned
‘tonight I feel one feeling only: overwhelming sadness’.
The debate in full: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldhansrd/text/130424-0003.htm.
64 Responses to “The ultimate betrayal – Shirley Williams and the Lib Dems hit the NHS where it hurts”
OldLb
The BMJ isn’t, but there are plenty of references to it.
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/item/study-reveals-true-picture-of-preventable-deaths-in-hospitals#.UXpke6LvuS8
OldLb
Odd that you can’t google.
see no evil
hear no evil
….
Nah nah, NHS, the best in the world. Wouldn’t kill people would it?
What I think you are suffering from is that you know you are forced to rely on the NHS. You have to accept its treatment, no matter how bad. So to feel better you’re in denial about the awful treatment it gives to lots of people, because that would mean facing up to the real risk you and others are exposed to.
Cole
The article to which you provided a link for says around 12,000 a year die unnecessarily NOT the 40,000 you’ve been twittering about for months as if it was a fact. It’s the same figure I used above after you refused to provide any evidence for your figure.
You should apologise and stop spreading this rubbish about.
Bob
The 1200, widely quoted, is a Daily Mail total based on morbidity rates at Stafford Hospital. Whatever the evidence of patient neglect (and that is substantial) there s no actual evidence to support this figure.
helper
i work for the NHS on a busy surgical ward and love my job very much i take great pride in helping patients spending time chatting with them making sure they are ok yes i agree some people are in the wrong jobs but not all of us so please don;t tar us all with the same brush and believe me its very hard to watch a patient suffer when you no there should be help for them i do my very best each 12.5 night shift i work to make sure the patients i;m looking after i well cared for just a shame not all do