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A Liberal Democrat member of the Commons health committee has called on the government to scrap its controversial health bill.
Andrew George mocked the "listening exercise" being undertaken by health secretary Andrew Lansley as a waste of time and said the only changes that would make the Bill acceptable would also make it unrecognisable from what it is now.
"The Bill itself should be stopped rather than paused. Any policy which undermines the NHS ethos through marketisation, fragments services which need to be integrated and which hands executive power to a narrow group of clinicians who are reluctant to take on such responsibilities anyway is destined to fail," he said today.
In a statement issued today his office said George "was hostile to the proposals from the moment it became clear that they didn't respect the coalition agreements".
The MP for St Ives added: "I'm pleased that we've been able to turn the debate around since my lone voice protest 10 months ago. Saving the NHS is more important than saving a few egos in the Coalition."
MPs will debate the future of the NHS today after Nick Clegg said he would not back the Bill unless "substantial, significant changes" were made.
The Labour-led Opposition day debate due to be held in the Commons this afternoon comes as the Lib Dem leader seeks to demonstrate that his party has real influence on coalition policy.
Last week voters punished the Lib Dems at the local elections for their decision to enter coalition with the Conservatives.
Clegg said: "I am not going to ask Liberal Democrat MPs and peers to proceed with legislation on something as precious and cherished as the NHS unless I personally am satisfied that what these changes do is an evolutionary change in the NHS and not a disruptive revolution."
The bill hands commissioning power to GPs and expands the role of the private sector in the health service.
This morning the Royal College of General Practitioners, Dr Clare Gerada, told the BBC the bill risked "unravelling and dismantling" the NHS.
"It appears that we are moving headlong into an insurance-type model of the NHS," she said.
Norman Lamb, one of Clegg's closest allies, said all three parties had "accepted the role of other providers" in the NHS but said he did not want to see a "US style" privatisation of health care.
"There is a concern the bill could damage opportunities for delivering integrated care," he said this morning. "International the evidence is that that approach is the best way of using money effectively".
In advance of today's debate the shadow health secretary John Healey dismissed the idea that the Lib Dems had been opposed to the legislation.
"For all his tough talk on the NHS, Nick Clegg is up to his neck in the Tory-led government's Health Bill and the Lib Dems have backed it so far at every stage in Parliament," he said.
Lansley meanwhile has insisted Labour would have cut funding to the NHS if they had won the election. "It is the coalition government that has protected the NHS and will strengthen it in the future, delivering better care for patients," he said.
And Tory back bencher John Redwood said this morning the bill actually had "more Lib Dem in it than anything else".
Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme this morning Lamb also indicated the Lib Dems would be push for House of Lords reform which he said was in the coalition agreement and "has to be delivered".
Article Comments
Thank goodness an MP talking sense. I am a GP in Tower Hamlets. There may be some sensible ideas floating around in the proposals but as a package it is madness. Stop it, and start again; this time using a sensible methodology.
onegpprotest
13th May 2011 at 3:06 pm
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