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”
Cole
Er, the BMJ study you’ve endlessly quoted says that the figure is under 12,000. Read the article and stop picking up random info from 2000.
Cole
You’d better give us the link. You misinterpreted, probably deliberately, the previous figures you kept trotting out and exaggerated them by a factor if nearly four. Which is what you’d expect from a right winger.
OldLb
Where have a tarred you?
That still leaves the people being killed and maimed in the NHS. There are lots of them. I’ve posted lots of links to research on the matter.
Here are the usual replies.
1. It’s not the people who kill and maim who are the problem, its that bloke in head office.
2. I was worse during the times of the Great Plague.
3. It’s worse in Somalia. Or the US, or whatever boggy man you want.
A bit like the Yorkshire ripper complaining about being jailed because the police haven’t caught Jack the Ripper.
The problem is that you have to explain why patients are being starved to death or denied fluids, and this isn’t the LCP. Why hospitals aren’t being cleaned. [That’s the one where the heads have to roll from the top]
Why aren’t things being reported and patients told? For example, it was proposed that Doctors had a duty to tell patients of errors, or their relatives. Doctors, insurers and the government scotched that one.
The reason is with 40,000 deaths a year (12-80K being the range I’ve seen, the NHS would be bankrupt. 500K for a pay off? 500K for a death on average. [One of the deaths I’ve already referred too is going through the courts. NHS killed a hedge fund manager 1 week after giving birth to a second child. That isn’t going to be cheap]
That’s 20 bn a year, just for the deaths.
Then you have the maiming. More money there.
Hence they have decided on their policy. It’s keep quite and let the victims pay the price. Not moral.
Not good practice either. If you look at pilots. There is lots of reporting of errors. End result, standards go up, deaths down. The difference with doctors is that pilots lose from their mistakes. They kill themselves with others.
Doctors and nurses need to have consequences for their errors.
Patients need compensation.
Cole
Another stream of consciousness.
helper
I really enjoy looking after people I no some others don’t its a real shame the NHS could be so good if they all did I no some nurses that were crap health cares and I don’t think they will be any better as nurses its a real shame Sent from my Windows Phone