Andrew Lansley 'pauses' progress of NHS reform bill: Miliband speech

Andrew Lansley 'pauses' progress of NHS reform bill: Miliband speech; - I believe this plan does not represent a serious response to the lessons of the last 13 years, nor a credible response to the challenges of the future. Instead, it is a year-zero approach to reorganising the NHS. Ideological and reckless. Why do I say that David Cameron’s plan has failed to learn the lessons of the past? First, the shift towards free-market healthcare will not in any sense help the NHS prepare for the challenges it will face in the future. An ageing population and rising chronic disease both demand an NHS which can prevent and intervene earlier. Given these challenges the big task for the NHS is to get family doctors and hospitals working more closely together. But the government’s plans risk setting GP against hospitals in the battle for profits and patients. Given the challenge of an ageing society a central task is to get GPs and social care for the elderly working together. But the government’s plan risks fragmenting services into hundreds of GP consortia each with an uncertain financial future. Everything we know from around the world suggests free markets don’t work in planning efficient healthcare systems. Demand for services is less well managed and cost pressures rise. The Prime Minister likes to say we need better cancer survival rates. Who could disagree? But he’s given us no clue as to why his reorganisation will help achieve that goal. When judged as a plan to prepare the NHS for the next decade, Mr Cameron’s proposals are, at best irrelevant, and at worst deeply unhelpful to the kind of integrated and preventative care we need. Second rather than strengthening patient focus and accountability, these plans will weaken them. The abandonment of many of the waiting time guarantees takes power away from patients. The Bill offers only the vaguest answers to the question of what happens if your GP consortium wants to restrict your choice or s...