Health and Social Care (Re-committed) Bill

Dan Byles Excerpts

Tuesday 6th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Debbie Abrahams]

I thank my hon. Friend for that contribution.

[Dan Byles (North Warwickshire) (Con)]

What does the hon. Lady say to Professor Stephen Field, who was the chairman of the independent NHS Future Forum? He told the Bill Committee:

“When we spoke to the Government and…a lot of senior staff at the Department of Health…we did not, at any time, pick up any feeling that anyone wanted a free open market where people could come in and privatise the NHS, as some people have said in the press.”––[Official Report, Health and Social Care (Re-committed) Public Bill Committee, 28 June 2011; c. 15, Q26.]

[Debbie Abrahams]

I would be happy to forward to the hon. Gentleman a British Medical Journal article that reproduced in full the concerns of health care professionals that were not included in that account. Unfortunately, there is an element of bias in how they have been reported.

--- Later in debate ---

[Frank Dobson]

In fairness, I think that given the accuracy of the present Government’s aim, if they tried to rubber-stamp something they would probably miss.

[Dan Byles]

In view of the speech that the right hon. Gentleman is making and his definition of a “proper Conservative”, I wonder whether he has just come out of the closet as a proper Conservative himself.

[Frank Dobson]

People have described me as old Labour, but I have moved on from that. I am now heritage Labour. Part of our heritage, however, is the national health service, and it is not the Tories’ heritage either. Those who play with the national health service—which is what I think the Government are doing, purely for ideological reasons—do us a disservice in two ways. They threaten the likely performance of the national health service and the people working in it, and they threaten the relationship between the British people and the national health service.