NHS Reorganisation

Debate between John Healey and David Evennett

Wednesday 16th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

The hon. Gentleman needs to read some of the material for himself, rather than just reading the briefings provided by his Whips and his Front-Bench team. Some of the 52 organisations that this Government and the Health Secretary claim supported the Bill have written to me saying that far from supporting the principles of the Bill, they have “grave concerns” about the White Paper; that was said by the Patients Association. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy has said:

“We have been very clear that we have grave concerns about the scope and speed of the structural changes proposed”.

Diabetes UK, Cancer Research UK, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and others do not take kindly to being misrepresented by Ministers as supporting this Bill when they have such grave concerns.

[Mr David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

I always thought that the right hon. Gentleman was a reformer at heart, but he obviously is not, given what he is saying today. Why did productivity in our hospitals decline by 15% during the 13 years of the Labour Government, while bureaucracy increased?

[John Healey]

One of the problems—we all know this, and the new Government will be faced with it in exactly the same way—is exactly how to measure productivity in the NHS. Given the complexity of what is provided for patients—and the requirement to put together packages of care to help people recover from serious illness and live independently is so complex—it is hard to do that. The NHS just is not like a commercial business, which is what this Government want to turn it into.

NHS Reorganisation

Debate between John Healey and David Evennett

Wednesday 17th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

If two thirds of the GPs the hon. Gentleman met are in favour, one third are obviously not convinced, but they will be forced to do this anyway. That is part of the problem, and I will come to that in a moment.

It is no wonder that the head of the NHS Confederation, the body that is there for those who run the NHS, told the Health Committee last month that

“there is a very, very significant risk associated with the project”.

Even the Secretary of State’s right-wing supporters in the Civitas think-tank tell him that he is wrong. They have said:

“The NHS is facing the most difficult…time in its history. Now is not the time for ripping up internal structures yet again on scant evidence”.

[Mr David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

I have been listening to the right hon. Gentleman with great interest. I know his moderate views on many things, but he misrepresented what my hon. Friend the Member for Enfield North (Nick de Bois) said about the numbers of GPs. Now that targets and top-down management—the centrepiece of the last Labour Government’s policies—are being discarded even by those on the right hon. Gentleman’s own Front Bench, does he not agree that giving significant freedoms to front-line professionals is a better way forward?

[John Healey]

Yes, of course; we had been doing that for some years before the election and we had plans to do it after the election, but the fact is that we did not win the election, and the Secretary of State is in power now. He is making the decisions and he is the one who is entrusted with the future of our NHS. He is the one who needs to answer to the House for his plans.

The problem with broken promises is worse than I have already suggested. The coalition agreement promised:

“The local PCT will act as a champion for patients and commission those residual services that are best undertaken at a wider level, rather than directly by GPs.”

The Secretary of State’s plans will do precisely the opposite. He is abolishing the PCTs, not building on the best of what they do.