Johnson to announce controversial plans for greater NHS control (England)

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Northerner

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Type 1
Boris Johnson is set to spark a political row this week by announcing plans to seize greater control of the NHS, despite warnings that the “power grab” will see ministers blamed for delays in treatment and closure of local hospital units.

The prime minister has told the new health secretary, Sajid Javid, to put the long-awaited health and care bill before parliament despite Javid’s own misgivings and concerns among hospital bosses and doctors’ leaders.

Conservative MPs are becoming increasingly anxious that the bill, which involves the biggest shake-up of the NHS in England in a decade, could become a damaging political drama, make people question Tory handling of the NHS and prove a gift to Labour, which last week called for the bill to be scrapped.

Javid is expected to lay the bill before parliament on Tuesday after the prime minister overruled his plea to delay its introduction until the autumn. Johnson has told Matt Hancock’s successor to press ahead with the legislation despite Javid’s concern that it will prove “controversial” and involves “significant areas of contention” which have yet to be resolved.


"Dr David Wrigley, the BMA’s deputy chair of council, said: “We are concerned that private health providers like Virgin Care could be given seats on the boards of ICSes and therefore potentially be involved in deciding who gets what contracts. And we are very concerned that the bill could means that contracts are just handed out to the private sector, without a tendering process.”"

Privatisation by stealth :(
 
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I doubt that this will get through Parliament and the Lords. Any fool can see that whatever problems NHS England have will be laid at the door of Number 10 (and 11). The BMA will certainly oppose it. And I agree, this is privatisation my stealth, with NHS services contracted to the lowest bidder, looking for profit.

What they are trying to fix is earlier NHS England reforms like the introduction of health trusts and CCGs. Instead of abolishing these, which are a financial drain on NHS England, they are going to replace them. What they don’t see is how NHS Scotland runs, without any such add ons. It’s not perfect, but it is run efficiently, particularly in the IT connection between hospitals and GPs. And it is immune to privatisation. The Scottish government, of any political stripe, wouldn’t dream of privatisation of NHS Scotland. It’s too precious to the population. It’s precious in England, too.

What NHS England needs is more money, more nurses and doctors, not more expensive reorganisation. The only good thing the Tony Blair government did was get waiting lists well down, with a reasonably content workforce. And no CCGs or health trusts. It’s the only good reason for living in Cuba, which has one of the best health services in the world.
 
Having been without my thyroid medication for over a week due to simple errors in procedure at my local GP practice combined with painfully slow service at the associated pharmacy I suspect manipulation somewhere - we have been at the same practice for about 40 years and never experienced anything like it.
Despite being issued with the packs of tablets regularly - every 56 days, my husband was told that the last time anything was issued from the pharmacy for me was in 2020, which could not possibly be true. I have marked the new prescriptions on my record of taking the tablets.
 
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