Kailash Chand: The Health and Social Care Bill remains flawed and unpopular

The government has set out its stall in detail on the changes it will make to the Health and Social Care Bill. Many of the BMA’s concerns were addressed by the NHS Future Forum and the government’s response. This includes restoring health secretary’s responsibilities, modifying Monitor’s duty to promote competition, and the need for clinicians […]

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Edward Davies: NHS Reforms – be careful what you wish for

David Cameron’s speech on NHS reform this week should have marked a substantial victory for doctors’ leaders. In recent months they have been even more outspoken than usual in their opposition to whatever it is the government’s saying this week and David Cameron let them know he was all ears. “I’ve heard the passion of […]

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Annabel Ferriman: What a way to decide the future of the NHS

Suddenly Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s proposals to “reform” the NHS look safe. For more than nine months, since the publication of Liberating the NHS last July, doctors, nurses, think tanks, and academics have been begging Lansley to re-think his ideas. By the start of the “pause” in April, it looked as though the government would […]

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Richard Smith: Competition versus integration

“Competition in health care should be tactical not ideological.” That was the main message from a recent debate on “Competition versus integration in the NHS” organised by the Cambridge Health Network and the King’s Fund.  In case you haven’t heard of the Cambridge Health Network, it might crudely and unkindly be described as the opposition […]

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