‘Damning’ MPs report could be ‘the final nail in the NHS reform
coffin’, says Unite
24 January 2012
The ‘damning indictment’ of the NHS reform process by the House
of Commons health select committee today (Tuesday 24 January)
should be ‘the final nail in the coffin’ of this massively flawed
legislation.
Unite, the largest union in the country with 100,000 members in
the health service, said today that the MPs’ verdict from the
cross-party select committee showed that the coalition was split,
and that the Health and Social Care bill should be scrapped.
The MPs expressed concern that the £20 billion of savings
demanded by health secretary Andrew Lansley were being made through
‘salami slicing’ and that the restructuring of the NHS was creating
‘disruption and distraction’.
Unite’s head of health, Rachael Maskell, said today: ”This
damning report from the select committee should be the final nail
in the coffin for this bill that has united health professionals
and health experts in opposition from across the board.
”This bill could be the Achilles heel of the coalition –
you have Liberal Democrat doyenne, Shirley Williams taking on her
party leader, Nick Clegg, and Stephen Dorrell, the health select
committee chair and former Tory health secretary, criticising David
Cameron.
”MPs are hearing from their constituents about increasing
waiting lists and cuts to services. The threats to the standards of
patient care are now being realised. Already it is estimated that
that tens of thousands of NHS staff have or will lose their jobs
because of the savings demanded by ministers.
”The fact that the committee chairman is Stephen Dorrell speaks
volumes about the depth of concern about the misguided direction of
travel of Andrew Lansley.
”Unite has been consistently against this bill – it is an ‘open
sesame’ for the private companies to take over great swathes of the
NHS; where profit will trump patient care.
”The bill is in deep trouble – already it is the longest period
that legislation has taken to get to the statute book in modern
times. Why? Because MPs and peers have rumbled the pernicious
implications of the bill. There is no appetite for this bill in
parliament and in the country as a whole.”
Last week, the all party parliamentary group on primary care and
public health said that it was ‘concerned’ that the cost of the NHS
‘reforms’ was between £2-3 billion, at a time when the government
wanted the health service to save £20 billion by 2015.
ENDS
Notes to news editors:
For further information please contact Unite communications
officer Shaun Noble on 07768 693940
