Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Tom Blenkinsop

Thursday 20th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

3. What steps he is taking to encourage his ministerial colleagues to make Government amendments to legislation in the House rather than in the House of Lords.

[Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

7. What steps he is taking to encourage his ministerial colleagues to make Government amendments to legislation in the House of Commons rather than in the House of Lords.

Health and Social Care (Re-committed) Bill

Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Tom Blenkinsop

Tuesday 6th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Debbie Abrahams]

It is very interesting that the Government have changed how they measure waiting lists and now use an average, so those indicators are a movable feast.

As waiting lists go up, new health insurance products on the market are enticing people to believe that all their treatment and care can be met fully by the private sector. This will be complemented by new insurance markets set up for top-ups and co-payments. We know from the United States that people on low incomes will be less able to afford these products directly, which will impact on the existing health inequalities that the Secretary of State has stressed his commitment to reducing. Why are we doing this? It will increase and exacerbate the inequalities that already exist in accessing care.

Finally, the Bill allows both the national commissioning board and clinical commissioning groups to make charges. I foresee that in the next Parliament there will be more direct patient charges if this Government get in again. As the NHS budget is fixed, the drive for excess capacity will drain that budget rapidly. That will result in clinical commissioning consortia increasingly becoming rationing bodies. As waiting lists increase, they will attempt to manage the issue by reducing the number of core services. That will drive foundation trusts into further debt, forcing closures, mergers and private management takeovers, and we are already seeing that.

[Tom Blenkinsop]

On the point about foundation trust mergers, when was the last time the Office of Fair Trading was in charge of a merger of one foundation trust and another? Was it not in fact the Co-operation and Competition Panel, which, according to the Bill, will sit within Monitor?

[Debbie Abrahams]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for drawing that to my attention. He is absolutely right.

The Secretary of State’s duty to secure and provide a comprehensive health service is a key issue and needs protecting in full. It should not be changed at all. Why are we changing it if is already acceptable? I am sure that we will revisit the matter tomorrow.

Although the Government have supposedly made concessions, recognising that attempting to privatise the NHS, just as the utilities were privatised in the 1980s would not be acceptable to the public, they have changed tack, not direction. Opening up the NHS to EU competition law may dramatically increase the amount of capital available to bring into our health service, but ultimately that capital will flow back to investors at a profit, at the expense of patients and the UK taxpayer. That will only increase income and health care inequalities even further—another way in which the Secretary of State’s duty will not be met. It is clear that the NHS cannot survive the Bill. The NHS needs appropriate reform and proper accountability, but definitely not an opening up of the market in this way.

[Debbie Abrahams]

Fortunately, I was not a Member of Parliament at that time. As I said earlier, I have no problem with the private sector’s being part of our health system when it adds capacity and value, but the Bill is a whole new ball game.

[Tom Blenkinsop]

There is a fundamental difference between this Bill and any other on the health service. The Government are writing the Enterprise Act 2002 directly into the Bill, which means that it refers to foundation trusts as enterprises and businesses. That extends the ability to merge with business, not just within the NHS framework. That means that the Government have potentially opened up the NHS to European and UK competition law, and they know that full well.

[Debbie Abrahams]

I thank my hon. Friend for that contribution.