NHS reforms delayed over ‘genuine concerns’

The UK Government’s controversial plans to reform the NHS are to be delayed to allow more time for consultation, the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said yesterday.

Mr Lansley told MPs there were “genuine concerns” with the proposals, which would see primary care trusts abolished and GPs handed responsibility for commissioning health services.

But he said the NHS needed to change although private providers would not be allowed to exploit the new system and “cherry-pick” the most profitable services – a criticism highlighted by opponents of the Health and Social Care Bill.

The Bill completed its committee stage last Thursday but the speed with which it had progressed through Parliament had caused concern among doctors, nurses and patients, Mr Lansley said.

He did not say how long the delay would last but said the Government would listen to concerns.

Mr Lansley said that 43 GP consortia had recently applied successfully to adopt the Government’s strategy while local authorities were taking on responsibility for acting as public health boards.

He said the Government had already improved its plans by strengthening the scrutiny process of local authorities while it had worked to ensure competition would be on the “basis of quality not price”. But Mr Lansley said there could be further improvements to the Bill when it came to opening up the NHS to private providers. Emergency units “clearly will never be based on competition”, he said.

Attacking Labour for wasting £250 million on operations which were never carried out by private com-panies, Mr Lansley told MPs: “People want to know private companies cannot cherry-pick NHS activity, undermining existing NHS providers. Competition must be fair.