Health professionals remain
concerned about the government’s controversial NHS reforms, which were passed
by MPs last night after a two-day debate.
The Health and Social Care Bill, which will replace primary care trusts with clinical commissioning groups, went back to the Commons after the government agreed changes following consultation on the reforms. It was approved by MPs by 65 votes, and will now go back to Lords.
Commenting on the Bill, Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said the college supported the move to put clinicians, including GPs, at the centre of planning health services. However, it continued to have ‘a number of concerns’ about the reforms. There are issues, she said, that ‘we believe may damage the NHS or limit the care we are able to provide for our patients’.
She added: ‘These concerns have been outlined and reiterated pre- and post-[consultation]. As a college we are extremely worried that these reforms, if implemented in their current format, will lead to an increase in damaging competition, an increase in health inequalities, and to massively increased costs in implementing this new system.
‘As independent research demonstrates, the NHS is one of the most efficient health care systems in the world and we must keep it that way.’
The Royal College of Nursing also reiterated its concerns, following David Cameron’s suggestion at yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions that the RCN supported the Bill.
General secretary Dr Peter Carter said that while the government had listened in a number of areas, there remained ‘very serious concerns about where these reforms leave a health service already facing an unprecedented financial challenge’. The NHS must save £20bn by 2015.
Carter warned that patients’ and nurses’ interests were under threat through the combined effects of health service cuts, waste and bureaucracy, and key aspects of the Bill.
He added: ‘We will continue to present detailed argument and analysis to Parliament on the detail of the Bill to try and build on the changes that have been made and secure a change of direction on some of the most worrying aspects of the reforms.’
