By Richard Johnstone in Birmingham | 20 September 2011
Health minister Paul Burstow has said that the government might amend its controversial health reforms further in the House of Lords.
The Liberal Democrat told his party's conference today that the government was 'still listening', and could still make changes to the Health and Social Care Bill.
In a question and answer session on the Bill, which followed a motion critical of the changes at the party's spring conference, Burstow told delegates that the legislation had been changed so it was not focused on competition in the health service. Competition had been ‘put in its box’, he said.
The Bill, which will replace primary care trusts with clinical commissioning groups and increase competition in the NHS, was revised following a consultation by the NHS Future Forum.
Burstow also said that the government would ‘make sure’ that the health secretary retained the legal responsibility to maintain a universal health service in the UK.
However, one of the peers who will vote on the Bill, Baroness Shirley Williams, told the conference that the lack of a statement that ‘the secretary of state retains the residual ability to secure the provision of the health service in the UK’ remained one of her two main concerns over the proposals.
Williams told delegates that there had been ‘major changes’ to the initial proposals, with the focus now on co-operation rather than competition. This was one of the main conclusions of the future forum, and Williams said that co-operation ‘pervades the Bill now’.
She also said that plans for a so-called autonomy clause in the legislation should be changed.
This, she argued, meant ministers would not be able to direct the new health regulator Monitor or the proposed National Commissioning Board.
She said ministers ‘have to have responsibility and accountability for the NHS… There’s a clear constitutional need for the spending of public money on that scale to be accountable to Parliament.’
However, Burstow said that the Bill would for the first time require the health secretary to ‘set out what he means by a comprehensive health service and what the aims are for it’.
LibDem MP John Pugh told the conference that the reforms were ‘a huge strategic mistake’ by the government. He said that the reorganisation should not have been attempted when the NHS has to make £20bn in efficiency savings by 2015.
‘We have repeated the mistakes that previous governments have made and not built on what was good about the past.’
