Health Bill clears final Lords hurdle
pharmafile | March 20, 2012 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Health and Social Care Bill, Lords, NHS, debate, government
The Health and Social Care Bill has passed through the House of Lords, meaning it is on the verge of becoming law this week.
The Bill will now return to the House of Commons for the final stage of its passage, where MPs will debate the amendments made in the Lords.
These amendments include limiting the role of competition in the NHS, and ensuring the registration of health care support workers, whilst also clarifying the functions of the body due to replace the Health Protection Agency.
The reforms are looking to remove the current Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts in England, replacing them with GP-led Clinical Commissioning Groups.
These will be responsible for commissioning around £60 billion of the health service’s annual budget.
But opposition to the Bill has been mounting in recent months, with almost all professional healthcare bodies and unions coming out against the reforms.
Their biggest concern is that the government is seeking to privatise the NHS, and many have told the government they want the reforms dropped.
Risk register
The Bill is now coming into the final stages of a long and drawn out saga, but the government still has a battle on its hands.
Yesterday, Labour forced a Commons debate on whether the government should release its risk assessment on the reforms, and the Bill will not be able to have its final reading in the Commons until this issue is heard.
The 90-minute debate, which will be heard later today, revolves around the government’s reluctance to publish a risk register of its reforms, despite being told it must by the office for Freedom of Information.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Andy Burnham will argue later today that it should be released prior to the Bill becoming law, so that MPs have a chance to see any and all risks involved.
But speaking in the Lords, health minister Earl Howe said the Bill had been subject to more scrutiny than any other in recent times, with parliamentary debates of ‘unparalleled duration and scope’.
“I cannot accept for one moment that without sight of the transition risk register the House has somehow been denied a deep insight into what this bill means for the NHS. It is an absurd proposition,” he added.
Ben Adams
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