MPs will debate a bill later which supporters say will roll back what they call the creeping privatisation of the NHS.
The Private Members Bill seeks to repeal key parts of the government’s 2012 reform of the NHS in England.
Ministers say those reforms are saving the health service money, and they have no plans to repeal any parts of the legislation.
The bill is backed by the major health unions, but is unlikely to become law.
It is designed to repeal parts of the 2012 Health and Social Care Act that underpinned one of the biggest reorganisations of the NHS in England.
Clive Efford, Labour MP for Eltham, says those reforms imposed privatisation on the NHS.
“The NHS as we know it today will disappear if we continue to allow services to be forced out to private companies.
“It will seriously undermine the capacity of the NHS to provide services in the future, leaving us at the mercy of the private sector.
“This bill will halt the rush to privatisation and put patients rather than profits at the heart of our NHS.”
Uphill struggle
Specifically his bill would end compulsory tendering for NHS contracts and restore the health secretary’s responsibility for the NHS.
It would also remove the ability of NHS hospitals to earn up to 49% of their income from private patients and would exempt the NHS from an EU-US trade treaty – known as TTIP – which Labour says would allow US private healthcare companies to bid for NHS contracts.
Despite being supported by the Labour front bench, the bill faces an uphill struggle to become law.
Ministers point out that greater competition in the NHS was introduced by the Labour government more than a decade ago.
They argue the reforms to the NHS in England are saving at least £1.5bn a year.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “This bill is another example of Labour putting politics before patients, seeking to frighten people who rely on the NHS with phony privatisation claims.
“But the British public won’t be fooled by scaremongering from the party that opened the NHS up to private provision.
“They know the real debate in health is not public versus private, but good care versus poor care, and Labour have yet to answer to the patients and families who suffered in the failing hospitals that they swept under the carpet.”
Source BBC News
