Minor tweaking has not made the Health and Social Care Bill fit for purpose, BMA tells peers

Monday, 06 February 2012

Amendments amounting to little more than minor tweaking have not done enough to address the underlying problems with the Health and Social Care Bill, the BMA warned today (Monday 6 February 2012) as it published its latest briefing to peers ahead of the start of the Lords Report Stage.

The Bill returns to the House of Lords on Wednesday 8 February. In its briefing to peers, the BMA acknowledges that the Government has made some effort to try to address some of the association’s concerns, but says the Bill remains fundamentally flawed and should be withdrawn.   

The briefing paper argues that the Government’s whole approach to the reforms has not been effectively managed: the speed of change and implementation, the complex nature of the reforms and the absence of a clearly communicated vision, the lack of consideration of the consequences, and a mismatch of rhetoric and reality have been defining features of the current reform process.

Commenting, Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of BMA Council, said: 

"We recognise that some of the amendments recently set down by the Government suggest modest improvements in some areas, such as integration, training and education and giving patients a greater say in their health care.  But these do little to address the issues which continue to cause us great concern, for example: an over reliance on ‘market forces’ remains at the core of the Bill, there is excessive control over commissioning groups, plans for incentives for commissioning are ill-thought through, and proposals to give hospitals more scope to generate income from private patients pose serious risks.

“The Government has had to make so many amendments to remedy the initial flaws in the legislation and has brought in so many checks and balances that the level of complexity and bureaucracy in the new NHS will be huge. It would be better to withdraw the Bill altogether and come up with a new plan – one that will actually improve care and make the NHS more efficient.   

“We are not alone in this view; the bodies representing the majority of clinical staff in the NHS are all in agreement and the decision to come out against the reforms was not one that any of us took lightly.  The Lords must listen to the serious concerns being voiced by the profession before it is too late. They mustn’t accept minor tweaking - many of the things the Government wants, such as clinician-led commissioning, don’t require legislation and can be achieved without further structural change.”