In the latest round of warnings over the government’s controversial NHS reform bill, leading doctors insist the reforms to the NHS should be scrapped altogether or altered significantly to win over critics. 

The British Medical Association says, “That the Government’s planned reorganisation represents an enormous risk at a time when hospitals are under unprecedented pressure to save money.”

Furthermore, the BMA claim, “That despite an official pause in the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill through Parliament in order for criticisms to be heard, many important changes are still taking place across England.”

The proposed NHS Reform Bill seeks to scrap the current two tiers of management and hand-over the current £60 billion budget to GP led consortia who will then decided how the money is spent. Despite the reform bill having not been passed by Parliament, GP consortia are being set up with the old Primary Care Trusts being merged and or dismantled.

In addition to critics to the reform from leading clinicians, Labour is also adding on the pressure to ministers to allow MPs to study the legislation again in detail.  Labour’s concerns are that David Cameron may simply try to engineer a “political fix” on health reforms as way of settling disputes between Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs who are divided over this emotive issue.

Back in March of this year, The BMA held an emergency meeting, where delegates representing GPs and hospital doctors from across the country called for the bill to be scrapped. In addition to calling for the bill to be scrapped, they agreed not to end talks with the Government as a measure to ensure their professional opinion is listened to, as well as advise on how the bill can be amended. 

Despite the health profession opposing the reforms, minister still went ahead to push through the legislation in the House of Commons until it became obviously clear that the proposed bill in its current form would be rejected in the House of Lords, as well as Nick Clegg and other Liberal Democrat MPs beginning to voice their concerns over the bill. 

With the Government facing the possibility of the bill failing in Parliament, David Cameron announced that the bill would be put on hold. This would allow more time for ministers and a specially convened panel of health experts to listen to their criticisms. 

It is now looking like that the amended bill will see nurses and hospital doctors represented on GP-led commissioning consortia, while the powers of an economic regulator called Monitor will be watered down in order to quell fears of a full-blown market in healthcare.

But Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of the Council at the BMA, said, “The message from doctors is clear and simple – the Bill must be changed significantly, if not withdrawn altogether, if the NHS is to continue to improve.”

“We are right in the thick of the challenges the NHS faces, and while change is necessary, this major upheaval is not.”

In its formal submission to the Future Forum, the leading doctors’ union says, “There has been no pause on the ground, where implementation of the proposals is proceeding at great speed.”

It calls for the role of Monitor to be changed from enforcing competition to promoting integrated services; for all commissioning groups to include clinical staff; for deadlines on hospitals becoming self-sufficient to be relaxed; and for the duty of the Health Secretary to provide comprehensive health services to be retained. 

In a speech to the Royal Society of Medicine, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, John Healey, will say: “David Cameron is a PR man looking for a PR answer. He must accept the problem is not the presentation of his NHS plans but the full-blown free-market ideology behind them.”

“The risk is that the Prime Minister decides on a political fix to deal with divisions in his Government not the dangers to our NHS.”

As the debate over the controversial NHS reform bill continues, there are those within the profession who are clearly against the bill in its current form. There is consensus within the profession that the NHS does need to be reformed, but to what extent and at what cost is the major sticking point. 

The key criticisms of the reform is that the NHS will be competition led based on the lowest possible cost, with patient care suffering, as well as concerns that more doctor jobs and nurse jobs could go as the NHS goes through reforms at a time when cutbacks are being implemented. 

Until the Government completes its listening exercise, the public and those within the profession will have to wait and see how the reforms will affect them. As hospitals across the UK continue to deliver patient care with budgets being cut, MPP Locums works in partnership with these NHS Trusts. MPP Locums provides first class medical personnel where the demands are needed. 

As one of the largest and fastest growing specialist recruitment agencies in the UK, MPP Locums provides first class medical professionals to both the NHS and private health care providers. 

MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum doctor jobs, doctor jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July for the next three and we are regulated by the care Quality Commission and The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA).

Contact our registration team today if you want to be part of our growing medical specialist team.