GPs will be offered bungs, ex-health secretary Frank Dobson warns - It'll be brazen “bribery” says Labour MP
Published: 07 July 2011
by TOM FOOT
FAMILY doctors taking control of NHS spending next year under government health reforms will be thrown cash bungs by shadowy executives of massive profit-making companies, according to former health secretary Frank Dobson.
The Labour MP believes private firms will resort to brazen “bribery” in a bid to seize billions of pounds of NHS cash.
Under Conservative-led reforms, GPs will decide how money is spent and it will be illegal for them to favour the NHS as a matter of principle.
Mr Dobson said: “If the US is anything to go by, these companies know how to make things look very attractive to GPs. I really think we will be getting out the Bribery Act.” He warned of “dodgy outfits” and “secret meetings”. “Right now you can go to any hospital in the country. There is choice. But under the new system, the GP consortia will only be able to refer you to someone they have a contract with,” he said.
Mr Dobson clashed with Conservative Chris Philp and Lib Dem health scrutiny chief Councillor John Bryant at a hustings-style NHS debate organised by West Hampstead Amenity and Transport pressure group at Emmanuel Primary School on Monday.
Mr Philp, who lost by 42 votes to Glenda Jackson at the 2010 general election, recalled how his 68-year-old mother had waited a year for her NHS hip op.
“If there is a private provider who is ready to do the job, and is paid for by the NHS, then why should people not have the right to have that done?” he asked.
But Cllr Bryant said Andrew Lansley’s health reforms were “rather different” to the agreement signed during the Clegg-Cameron coalition talks after the general election.
“We were being sold a pup,” he said. “I was part of a significant [Lib Dem] rebellion that led to the pause in the Bill. I was doubtful of the role of competition in the NHS. We need collaboration, not competition. And we might just get there.”