Member News
31st January 2011
The Health and Social Care Bill will "change the very nature of the NHS", a parliamentary briefing has been told.
Speaking at a Unite media and parliamentary briefing on the day of the bill's second reading, Nick Parrott of the Keep our NHS Public campaign referred to the legislation as "unlike anything attempted before".
Parrott said: "If this bill goes through as it is by Easter, then the Tories will have achieved what for years they have tried to do – the removal of the NHS as we know it – in a matter of months."
"These are proposals unlike anything attempted before, either under Labour or previous Tory governments," he added.
And Parrott warned against exploitative practices from the private sector.
"The private sector will also be able to move in and exploit the new market in GP commissioning."
Also speaking at the briefing was Dr Ron Singer, chair of the Unite/Medical Practitioners Unit.
Singer described the evidence of the viability of market forces in the health sector as "ropey", and argued that it could lead to a decrease in quality.
"There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the introduction of the market in healthcare actually lowers the quality," Singer said.
Chairing the briefing was Unite’s assistant general secretary for public services, Gail Cartmail. She outlined the union’s key legislative concerns as being scrutiny, quality of care and universal access.
"The NHS is embarking on a journey from which, if it takes place, there will be no return," she said.
And Grahame Morris MP described the bill as "unprecedented in scale", and warned that the coalition would not find its journey through Parliament to be an easy process.
"The Health and Social Care Bill could prove to be Cameron’s achilles heel," Morris, the Labour MP for Easington, predicted.
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