Medical experts in Britain called Monday for sweeping changes to planned reforms of the state-run National Health Service, an issue that has inflamed tensions in the coalition government.
The NHS Future Forum, an independent body which has carried out a two-month consultation on the proposals, said “genuine and deep-seated concerns” about the plans had to be addressed amid mounting criticism.
Prime Minister David Cameron will respond to the recommendations on Tuesday but is expected to agree to make amendments after signalling last week that there would be “real changes”. Ministers took the rare step of halting the passage of the legislation through parliament earlier this year to launch a so-called “listening exercise”.
Monday’s report recommended that competition be used in the NHS but only when it would improve quality and that the pace of reforms should be varied depending on when the health service was ready. It also recommended specialist doctors and nurses should be involved in commissioning health services. The government’s original proposals suggested only family doctors should commission health care.
“There is no doubt that the NHS needs to change,” Steve Field, chairman of the forum and himself a family doctor, told reporters at a press briefing in London.
“However, during our listening we heard genuine and deep-seated concerns from the NHS staff, patients and the public which must be addressed if the reforms are to be progressed.”
Many of the recommendations in Monday’s report echoed suggestions made in Cameron’s speech last week.
The reforms have faced growing criticism from doctors’ unions while also exposing divisions between Cameron’s Conservatives and their junior coalition partners the Liberal Democrats. The plans angered many lawmakers in the centrist Lib Dems and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, the party leader, will later Monday claim victory in his fight to alter the reforms, telling his party their “voice was heard”.
The Lib Dems are struggling to win back ground after they lost support in recent local elections and were defeated in their campaign to persuade voters to back a historic change to the voting system in a referendum.
But the decision to roll back the health reforms has angered the Conservative rank-and-file, many of whom backed the original changes and feel Tory health minister Andrew Lansley has been abandoned by Cameron to appease the Lib Dems.
London, June 13, 2011 (AFP)
