The revised Destroy the NHS Bill is to be returned to the House of Commons to be debated briefly and superficially. Unison general secretary Dave Prentis issues a “call to arms” to defeat the ConDems attacks on public services.

A few recent news articles concerning the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.

BBC News – MPs to reconsider changes to NHS reforms in detail

Changes to proposed NHS reforms in England will be subject to fresh scrutiny in the Commons after MPs voted to send them back to committee stage.

MPs voted by a majority of 73 to “recommit” parts of the Health and Social Care Bill in a rare procedure.

Labour wanted the whole bill re-examined, arguing concessions meant it had changed beyond recognition.

Ministers have accepted limits on competition and a greater role for doctors and nurses in commissioning.

The concessions followed a backlash against Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s original proposals by many within the medical profession.

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MPs backed a motion recommitting aspects of the bill by 297 to 224 votes following a short debate in the Commons. The last time this happened during the passage of government legislation was in 2003.

Shadow health secretary John Healey said Labour would continue to “oppose this reckless and needless NHS reorganisation” and argued the decision only to review the proposed changes was a “procedural fix”.

But Health Minister Simon Burns said ministers did not believe it was necessary for the entire Bill to be recommitted to committee in order for proper scrutiny to take place.

“Indeed we feel very strongly that this would unnecessarily delay the progress of the Bill to the ultimate detriment of patients,” he said. “It is now time to give greater clarity and direction to staff and patients.”
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Government accused of trying to rush through botched NHS plans – mirror.co.uk

DAVID Cameron was last night accused of trying to rush through the Government’s botched NHS reforms without real scrutiny.

The PM was forced to water down Andrew Lansley’s original blueprint, and now the Government wants to steamroll the Bill through Parliament with just a fraction of MPs debating it.

The Commons Health Select Committee will get only 10 days to look over 60 of the Bill’s 300 clauses – meaning 80% of them will not be scrutinised fairly.

Shadow Health Secretary John Healey said it was “rushed and reckless” to deny the House of Commons its “proper role”.

He added: “NHS patients and staff have seen a wasted year of confusion and incompetence.

“It’s clear today this will continue, with the NHS set to be more deeply mired in complex bureaucracy and wasted costs for years to come. The way the ­Government is treating the health service is a disgrace.”

Labour MP Grahame Morris, who sits on the Health Select Committee, added: “The Health Bill is in chaos because this government thought it could steamroll the largest ever NHS shake-up though Parliament.”

Mr Cameron defended the limit, calling 10 days a ­“significant amount” of time.
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Union: We can win, we must win, we will win against cuts / Britain / Home – Morning Star

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis called the union’s 1.4 million members “to arms” today with a vow of sustained industrial action to defeat the Con-Dem attacks on public services.

In the wake of the huge anti-cuts demo on March 26 he warned Prime Minister David Cameron: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Mr Prentis declared unwavering support for the NHS and public-sector pensions and solidarity with sister unions taking strike action on June 30.

“Today is this union’s call to arms,” said Mr Prentis to repeated applause from delegates at the Unison conference in Manchester.

“When you get back to your branches, prepare for action. You have a massive job to do – deciding in regions what action to take, millions of leaflets to distribute, winning the argument with the public, recruiting new members to the cause.”

“Strike action will need to be sustained and the political and public campaigns intensified.
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Unison chief’s ‘call to arms’ warns of long fight over public-sector cuts | Politics | The Guardian

Prentis accused David Cameron of defending the interests of “fat cat bankers” and sacrificing low-paid public-sector workers. But he also fiercely attacked the Labour party, threatening to withdraw support unless the party backed the union campaign.

He said of the government’s action on public services: “They’re cutting further now than Thatcher dared. For them it’s unfinished business. They’ve declared war on our public services – with Tory donors, City firms, hedge funders back in the heart of government.”

He pledged support for the four unions holding a one-day strike next week and said: “If the government fails to listen, to heed our warnings, to negotiate in good faith, I say, David Cameron, you ain’t seen nothing yet. We will strike to defend our pensions. A campaign of strike action without precedent. Yes, we hope for the best. Yes, we will negotiate. But we plan for the worst. Our preparations are well advanced, but there is more to do.

“This is our union’s call to arms. When you get back to your branches, prepare for action. You have a massive job to do; deciding in regions what action to take, millions of leaflets to distribute, winning the argument with the public, recruiting new members to the cause. Strike action will need to be sustained. And the political and public campaigns intensified.

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He issued a message to the government on NHS reforms, saying: “We want the bill scrapped and we will fight you every step of the way, until [Andrew] Lansley tosses it back in the bin, where it belongs.”

On Labour he said: “It’s about breaking a political consensus that says markets know best. In truth, Labour built the bridge over which the Tories now march. In future, [it’s about] only supporting labour candidates who support our values, our union, our people.”

Union officials said this would not mean withdrawing funding from the Labour party (they have donated more than £400,000 in the past year) but instead refusing to endorse constituency candidates who did not promise to back the campaign, including industrial action.
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Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George points out that the proposed NHS ‘reforms’ are remarkably unchanged through the ‘listening exercise’. A poll shows that the Conservatives and Liberal-Democrats are regarded poorly.

A few recent news articles concerning the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.

‘New’ NHS reforms a lot like the old reforms | Left Foot Forward

For those who, like I, had strongly criticised the government’s Health and Social Care Bill and campaigned against the government’s plans, the unprecedented “pause” and “listening exercise” was an encouraging success. Then last week’s Future Forum report represented a welcome step forward.

However, what is emerging from the government’s response is disappointing. It leaves many of the previous concerns – about the risk of a marketised NHS, a missed opportunity to better streamline health and social care and a lack of accountability – still unresolved.

Whether it is the intention of ministers or not is unclear, but it seems that the government will perpetuate rather than resolve the risk posed by the private sector to core NHS services.

In particular:

• Although, as before, Monitor will not “promote” competition, the new NHS Commissioning Board will have an enhanced role in driving competition;

• The proposals weaken the ability of commissioners to treat core NHS services as their “preferred provider”;

• It enhances the opportunities for private sector providers as “choice” gains pre-eminence over integration; and

• Although commissioning bodies will not be able to delegate their responsibility for commissioning decisions to private companies, all other aspects of their role in managing and delivering those decisions can be.

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David Cameron’s popularity rating drops while Liberal Democrats’ slumps | Politics | The Guardian

David Cameron‘s personal popularity has dropped, and the Liberal Democrats‘ poll rating has hit its lowest level for 14 years, a Guardian/ICM survey has revealed.

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Overall, hostility to the coalition has grown sharply, with 50% of voters saying the government is doing a bad job and only 35% saying it is doing a good job – a net rating of -15%. That is 10 points worse than March and 38 down on June last year, when the coalition was enjoying a honeymoon.

The poll was carried out at the weekend after a difficult few days for the coalition, dominated by the relaunch of the NHS plans and announcements of industrial action by several public sector unions.

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A Morning Star article about huge government waste on NHS IT projects and a Comment is Free article about the government’s intention being to abolish the NHS and introduce a US-based private health insurance model.

A few recent news articles concerning the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.

Billions of reasons why we need answers / Features / Home – Morning Star

The NHS spent £2.7 billion on a computer system that doesn’t – and likely never will – work. And it may may spend a further £4bn, or even more, because it would cost more to cancel the contracts than let them run to their useless end.

In mid-May, when the National Audit Office pronounced the NHS National Programme for IT dead, there were concerned headlines in all the papers. Tory Health Minister Simon Burns called the scheme an “expensive farce.”

But since then, silence.

The billions will continue to pour out of the Health Service into the pockets of two companies, CSC and BT. And no one is to blame.

David Cameron is busy berating poor people for having too many children. Ed Miliband is having a go at the unemployed for “shirking.” So there is plenty of blame to go round.

But £7bn of NHS money down the drain? It seems to be no one’s fault.

It’s easy to kick the poor. But having a go at the silicon snake-oil salesmen is a little harder, because the NHS IT scandal was cooked up by the same mix of new Labour corporate groupies, bankers and friends of the Tories who still hang around our political scene.

One former Labour minister works for a firm being paid for the NHS techno-crap. The Tories’ “efficiency adviser” helped with the scheme’s birth.

So the front benches of both parties keep quiet about the NHS’s wasted billions. Piddling on the poor from a moderate height is so much easier.

Patricia Hewitt, Labour health minister when the National Programme for IT was set up, became a BT director in 2008. So the NHS pays BT billions for a computer system that doesn’t work. And BT pays Hewitt £159,000 a year for a part-time job.

The Tories are strangely quiet too. They might have cause for mixed feelings – the NHS Programme For IT was launched at a seminar organised by Tony Blair.

Not a single doctor or nurse was invited to it, but Blair’ s head of “government commerce,” Peter Gershon, was.

Just before the last election, Cameron launched what he thought was a daring theft of new Labour’s clothes. He took on Gershon as a Conservative “efficiency adviser.” Thus the Tory’s idea of efficiency is a man who helped bring a £7bn failure to the NHS. Despite his lack of health qualifications, Gershon has a thing for the NHS. He is also chairman of General Healthcare, a private hospital firm that sells NHS operations – and wants to sell more.
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A return to pre-NHS fear | Allyson Pollock | Comment is free | The Guardian

The political horse-trading is over: the Future Forum has given the green light to the government’s fundamental reforms of the NHS. The government’s response signals that the policy of switching to mixed funding and further privatisation of care is unabated.

It took the prime minister’s intervention to disclose that funding is the primary purpose behind the bill. The NHS, he told us, is simply not sustainable in its present form and its commitments can no longer be met from taxes. This controversial claim is far from true.

Cameron’s twin strategy is to continue with market competition on the assumption that it improves cost-efficiency, and raise new forms of funding by facilitating the introduction of private insurance and patient top-up fees. While competition is now proclaimed by government as an unqualified good, the second prong of the strategy – moving to user charges and insurance funds – dare not speak its name. But key to both are the consequences for redistribution or fairness.

Redistribution underpinned the drafting of the 1946 NHS Act. The structures and mechanisms required to achieve this were administrative tiers covering geographic populations to ensure universal coverage; services are integrated into the administrative structures and provided on the basis of need. For more than 50 years there were no pricing, billing or market transaction costs. Crucially, there was no patient selection, and access to care was on the basis of need, not ability to pay. The NHS led the way as a model of a fair, efficient and low-cost system.

Competition and insurance breaks up the systems of redistribution. Several decades of research show that the impact of choice and competition on quality, efficiency and outcomes in healthcare is unproven. The forum pays no heed to evidence, selectively citing a slim array of mainly non-scholarly evidence in support of its ideological framing of market competition.

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