Health Secretary denies reforms are set in stone after backlash from Lib Dem MPs
HEALTH Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has hinted he may review plans to reform the NHS after the Tory-led government came under heavy fire from coalition partners at the Liberal Democrat spring conference.
Lansley's controversial Health and Social Care Bill is currently before Parliament and includes a raft of measures to restructure the NHS, including axing primary care trusts and regional health authorities and replacing them with GP consortia that will be responsible for commissioning services.
But the plans have been met with opposition, including from GPs themselves, and the British Medical Association is holding a special representative meeting this week to discuss the plans.
The proposals were also a major source of debate at the Liberal Democrat spring conference over the weekend as opposition grew from the Conservative Party's coalition partner. The conference in Sheffield voted to end ‘top down’ re-organisation of the NHS and impose limits on the privatisation of services.
Following the outcry, Lansley spoke to the BBC’s Politics Show and moved to reassure those concerned that the proposals would lead to the privatisation of the NHS. He said: “The proposals are always under review. We have already made changes. We are not sitting there saying they must know all the answers and nothing can change.”
He added that commissioning arrangements under the new system will prevent private providers being able to choose to provide cheap and easy-to-run services, leaving the more complex tasks for NHS organisations.