Nothing Short Of NHS Policy U-turn Will Do says Andrew George MP

Commenting in advance of a speech to be given today by the Prime Minister about NHS reforms, the Liberal Democrat MP and Health Select Committee member, Andrew George, warned that anything short of a major U-turn in Government policy will fail to persuade the majority of his Liberal Democrat colleagues and would ultimately be scuppered in the House of Lords.

Mr George said, “We have to get beyond the platitudes of ‘no change is not an option’ and look at the detail of what the Government is proposing.

“Unless the Government widens responsibility for the local management and commissioning of the NHS to a broader group of Clinicians and community representatives rather than merely GPs and that they withdraw proposals for the wholesale marketisation of the NHS then the Health Bill will be dead in the water.

“Following reported comments of one of the Prime Minister’s press officers in the US at the weekend many of my colleagues and I are concerned that the Government may retreat from plans for a major overhaul of the Health and Social Care Bill. Opening most of the health service to a predatory private sector would result in the destructive fragmentation of a service which should be more (rather than less) integrated.”