Going back to the beginning can't save your Health Bill - bin it, Unite urges government

27 May 2011

The astonishing admission yesterday (Thursday) from Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg that the deeply controversial Health and Social Care Bill will have to repeat its Commons' committee stages all over again is nothing short of staggering, says the country's biggest union, Unite.

The recommittal process used rarely in the modern era and for a government to recommit their own Bill proves that they cannot make up their mind about their own proposals.

Plans to send the health bill back to Committee stage therefore confirm health professionals' long-held fears that the proposals are so ill thought through that they cannot be redeemed.

The union also warns that the promise of major alterations to the Bill will not be enough to save it while those clauses which will hasten the demise of the NHS remain in any form.

Rachael Maskell, Unite national officer for health, said: "Nick Clegg's staggering comments today need urgent clarification.

"The threat of this bill has brought months of uncertainty to the national health service, so if the government is to send this Bill back to the first base, that is welcome.

"However, it must do so with the Bill stripped of its deadly proposals to put competition before care. Plus those measures that will impose tremendous financial instability on the health service must go otherwise this process is but an interlude to privatisation.

"Health professionals will only be content that quality, stable and universal patient care comes first.

"All this can be achieved by working with us, and without costly legislative upheavals.

"That is why the only place for this Bill to go is in the bin."

Unite says that the last time a bill was recommitted was 2003 when the Hunting Bill was forced back to parliament.

---

Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to ePolitix.com. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the ePolitix.com service.

As such, ePolitix.com does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.