NHS Reforms

Today it was revealed that three cabinet ministers had approached the unofficial conservativehome website and told them of their opposition to the Health and Social Care Bill. This comes just days after a Downing Street aide said that Andrew Lansley “should be taken out and shot” for alienating doctors and nurses. This isn’t the first piece of opposition that the reforms have experienced, the Labour Party has always denounced the reforms, Liberal Democrats have been uneasy about them and there’s been huge opposition from professional groups such as the BMA (British Medical Association) and the Royal College of Nursing. The reforms have also got little public support, many people fear that the bill threatens the founding dream of the NHS and it begins the process of privatisation.

I oppose the reforms wholeheartedly as I believe the NHS is best kept safe in public hands. Inclusion of private companies will drive up the cost of healthcare, not down. This can be easily seen in worldwide trends, the more private sector involvement, the more expensive the healthcare. I also feel that this current government has absolutely no mandate for reform of the NHS, firstly the government promised us “No top-down re-organisation of the NHS”, despite this ‘promise’ the government is scrapping PCTs (Primary Care Trusts) which control around 80% of the NHS budget, if this isn’t a “top-down re-organisation” then I don’t know what is! Also, as the below Conservative campaign poster shows, David Cameron promised not to cut the NHS but he is already hacking at the NHS budget.

One of the biggest parts of the Health and Social Care Bill is that power will be put in the hands of GPs. Despite this GPs are not convinced and the vast majority of them oppose the bill, GPs believe that they will have less time for patients, and they are doctors, not administrators or managers. They feel that time with patients is already squeezed and taking even more time from dealing with patients would destroy one of the main pillars of the NHS.

One of the cabinet ministers who contacted conservativehome told them that he/she thought Andrew Lansley should resign over the bill. He has made himself unpopular among everyone on the left, most of the medical and nursing professions and now on the conservative side too. One Conservative minster even compared the bill to Margaret Thatcher’s Poll Tax. It is difficult to imagine him surviving until the next election. One of the biggest worries that the ministers had was that the issue would damage the Conservative's credibility at the next election in dealing with the NHS. The bill has very little support from the general public and unless it is dropped could fatally wound the Conservatives at the next election.

This bill divided the cabinet decisively between Lib Dem and Conservative, it could have helped to end the coalition. But with Conservative ministers joining the growing opposition, it may not split the coalition just yet. We'll have to wait to see.