The controversial section 75 regulations of the Health & Social Care Act will force nearly every part of the NHS to be opened up to compulsory competition. There’s been widespread opposition to the regulations, from the Royal College of GPs, the British Medical Association, and most of the medical profession. The Government says the regulations have been re-written after the outcry, and the Liberal Democrats’ Health Spokesperson in the Lords, Baroness Jolly, says she’s now satisfied with government reassurances and will be backing the regulations. But according to legal experts, the rules are little changed and promote privatisation.
The National Health Action party is demanding the regulations be withdrawn and replaced with ones that explicitly rule out enforced competition. It says the regulations represent “the cutting edge of the knife slicing the NHS up into a fragmented, competitive market”. Dr Clive Peedell, the co-leader of the National Health Action Party, says it’s vital that Lords use this last Parliamentary chance to stop the NHS privatisation that the electorate didn’t vote for:
“Private providers will focus on delivering the services which will make them the biggest profits. This means “cherry picking” the simpler, elective, high volume procedures such as cataract surgery and joint replacements. Conversely, NHS hospitals have to provide the full range of services to their local communities to ensure all healthcare needs are provided for. Since there’s a fixed pot of money, the NHS hospitals will come under huge financial strain as the private sector takes away the most profitable cases. Hospitals will be forced to merge and close, and many communities will lose their local services. So much for patient choice.”
And the NHA Party’s John Lister, also of London Health Emergency, said: “The regulations represent the cutting edge of the knife slicing the NHS up into a fragmented, competitive market. The regulations were separated from the Bill in the hopes of avoiding proper parliamentary scrutiny. Peers and MPs should now scrutinise them and reject them to minimise the damage done to the NHS by the Health & Social Care Act.”
The National Health Action party is demanding the regulations be withdrawn and replaced with ones that explicitly rule out enforced competition. It says the regulations represent “the cutting edge of the knife slicing the NHS up into a fragmented, competitive market”. Dr Clive Peedell, the co-leader of the National Health Action Party, says it’s vital that Lords use this last Parliamentary chance to stop the NHS privatisation that the electorate didn’t vote for:
“Private providers will focus on delivering the services which will make them the biggest profits. This means “cherry picking” the simpler, elective, high volume procedures such as cataract surgery and joint replacements. Conversely, NHS hospitals have to provide the full range of services to their local communities to ensure all healthcare needs are provided for. Since there’s a fixed pot of money, the NHS hospitals will come under huge financial strain as the private sector takes away the most profitable cases. Hospitals will be forced to merge and close, and many communities will lose their local services. So much for patient choice.”
And the NHA Party’s John Lister, also of London Health Emergency, said: “The regulations represent the cutting edge of the knife slicing the NHS up into a fragmented, competitive market. The regulations were separated from the Bill in the hopes of avoiding proper parliamentary scrutiny. Peers and MPs should now scrutinise them and reject them to minimise the damage done to the NHS by the Health & Social Care Act.”
SIR – Peers will debate NHS privatisation regulations today. It seems that Liberal-Democrat peers will be whipped to vote for the final nail in the coffin of the traditional NHS, because Baroness Jolly, the party’s health spokeswoman, has said that she accepts the Government’s revised version of the regulations. Yet a variety of independent expert legal opinions have stated that the regulations will still force commissioners to tender out NHS services whenever there is a possibility of more than one provider. It is not clear why Lady Jolly is proposing to gamble the future of the NHS on the strength of assurances given by Earl Howe, the health minister, that critics’ fears about the revised regulations were unfounded. The true nature of the NHS reform has been concealed from the public. Clearly the House of Lords should not pass law that has been misrepresented to Parliament. The public interest lies in rejecting these regulations, which would force a more expensive and less effective NHS on us. We urge all peers to cast their votes against the regulations.
Yours faithfully,
1. Dr Lucy Reynolds, health policy analyst
2. Dr Clive Peedell, BMA council member, oncologist, Co-leader of National Health Action Party
3. Dr John Lister, Director, Health Emergency campaign
4. Dr Louise Irvine, GP, London
5. Dr Richard Taylor, former MP for Wyre Forest, Co-leader National Health Action Party
6. Heathcote Williams, writer
7. Professor Richard Fielding, University of Hong Kong
8. Professor Jennie Popay Professor of Sociology and Public Health Lancaster University
9. Dr Paul O'Brien, SRH London
10. Professor Klim McPherson, University of Oxford
11. Dr David Wrigley, BMA General Practitioners Committee
12. Dr Patrick French, Consultant Physician, London
13. Dr Maggie Ireland, Public Health Geneticist
14. Professor Derek Cook, St George's, University of London.
15. Professor David Evans, University of the West of England
16. Professor Robert West, University College London
17. Candy Udwin London Keep Our NHS Public
18. Dr Anthony Isaacs, Retired Consultant Physician, London
19. Dr Alex Scott-Samuel, senior lecturer in public health, Liverpool
20. Dr Gurdave Gill, GP Sidcup, Kent
21. Dr Michel Coleman, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
22. Dr Daniela Mo, GP Sidcup, Kent
23. Dr Meri Koivusalo, international health policy analyst
24. Paul Batchelor, Hon Senior Lecturer University College London
25. Dr Jonathan Folb, Consultant Microbiologist, Liverpool
26. Penny Ormerod, National Health Action Party executive member
27. Professor John Yudkin, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University College London
28. David Reed, Patient, London
29. Dr Christopher Birt, Department of Public Health and Policy, University of Liverpool
30. Dr Ron Singer, Medical Practitioners' Union President
31. Professor Alison Macfarlane, City University London
32. Professor John Ashton, former regional director of public health for the north west
33. Ms Jane Beenstock Locum Consultant in Public Health
34. Caroline Molloy, NHS campaigner
35. John Boswell, Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health
36. Simon Trott, 38 Degrees member
37. Kathy van Praag, concerned citizen, Oxford
38. Dr Peter Bruggen, retired consultant psychiatrist, NHS Trust medical director
39. Dr Julian Tudor Hart, retired GP, Swansea
40. Professor Wendy Savage, President, Keep Our NHS Public
41. Rhonda Riachi, Independent Educational Consultant
42. Marion Fiddes, Financial Consultant
43. Judith Vidal-Hall, former editor Index on Censorship
44. David Lawrence, Consultant in Public Health
45. Dr Barnaby Fiddes Addenbrooke's Hospital
46. Katherine Jones, Architect
47. Dr Jonathan Tomlinson, GP
48. Declan O’Brien, Chair, 38 Degrees Camden
49. Roy Trevelion, Member, 38 Degrees Camden
50. Dr Peter Fisher, President of NHS Consultants' Association
51. Dr Anne Watson, GP retired
52. Philip Pullman, author
53. Dr Susan Kelly, Consultant Haematologist (retired) Buckinghamshire hospitals NHS trust
54. Professor Allyson Pollock, Co-director of Global health, policy and innovation unit, Queen Mary, University of London
55. Mark Haddon, author
56. Dr Guy Baily. Consultant Physician, London
57. Dr Brian Fisher, GP
58. Nazreen Subhan, 38 Degrees Camden
59. Tamsin Bacchus, Lewisham Hospital Campaign
60. Dr Peter English, SW London Health Protection Team
61. Julie Hotchkiss, Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health
62. Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign and the Lewisham Buggy Army
