By Richard Johnstone in Brighton | 25 September 2013
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has warned that the government’s NHS reforms could force hospitals to start charging patients for care.
Burnham said the coalition's decision to free hospitals to earn up to 49% of their income from private patients could lead them to charge for some beds that would otherwise be left empty.
Burnham told Labour’s annual conference in Brighton today that this would be ‘the next scandal’ as NHS care was restricted due to cost pressures.
‘NHS hospitals, pushed by [Prime Minister] David Cameron to earn half of their income from private patients, charging for beds left empty by those restrictions.'
This would lead to a ‘postcode lottery running riot’ across the country, Burnham warned.
‘NHS hospitals, built with public money, charging people for treatments that used to be free – and still are free to people living elsewhere.'
A Labour government would take early action to end this danger by repealing the reforms contained in the Health and Social Care Act.
But Clinical Commissioning Group representatives said they were developing and commissioning innovative services and urged Labour not to undertake another wide-ranging reform.
Dr Steve Kell, co-chair of the NHS Clinical Commissioners’ Leadership Group, called on Burnham not to ‘engender fear and stasis’ across the health service.
‘It is not possible to promise no top-down re-organisation while at the same time talking about fundamental changes to how health services are commissioned and the route by which they are funded,’ he said.
‘We urge Andy Burnham work with us, strengthen what we have, and let us have the confidence to invest significant time and effort to develop the services which bring about the integrated care we all want and support.’
Elsewhere in his speech, Burnham reiterated that Labour’s plans to create a combined ‘national health and social care service’.
Uniting health and social care would be ‘the first meaningful step on the road to good care for all people in the 21st century’, he added.
The current failure to care for people properly meant elderly patients being ‘driven to hospital in ever-greater numbers’, and hospitals often unable to meet their needs. Labour’s ‘new mission’ would be to ‘care for everyone’s mum and dad in the way we wish for our own', he said.
