FORUM: You thought our A&E was safe? Just wait until the NHS shake-up arrives

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Coalition government reforms will unleash the forces of competition on the NHS , warns Emily Thornberry. The results will change the face of healthcare

Published: 1st April, 2011

THE Tory-Lib Dem government is making the biggest shake-up to the NHS in its history, at the same time as asking the health service to find £20billion in efficiency savings. This is reckless, posing a huge threat to healthcare in Islington and throughout the country. 

The NHS offers a fantastic service, but it’s not perfect – improvements can always be made. The government should be building on Labour’s achievements. Instead, Andrew Lansley is forcing through ideological changes which the NHS chief executive David Nicholson described as “so big you will be able to see them from outer-space”.

In the Health Bill, Mr Lansley creates Monitor, a new monster regulator in the health service, set up like the regulators for privatised utilities such as Ofgen or Ofwat. Its primary purpose is to drive competition into the heart of health care, making it increasingly vulnerable to EU competition law. 

This will take the “N” out of the NHS, creating chaotic and fragmented services, in competition with one another, rather than the cooperating and collaborating bodies we need to ensure and improve patient care. 

If competition is unleashed in the NHS, private companies will chase work that’s straightforward. What happens to those with disabilities or mental health problems – the people who most need the NHS? 

Competition completely undermines any hope of equality of care.

In Islington, our health care could be transformed, as what are seen as “weaker organisations” are forced to the wall. Mr Lansley has removed regional service planning so any mergers and closures will not be managed but chaotic. 

At the moment, we have overview and scrutiny committees that can refer changes such as proposed hospital closures to the Secretary of State. 

This helps to protect local services and to make sure people’s voices are heard. That’s what happened to Finsbury Health Centre

In future, these bodies will only be able to intervene when “guaranteed” or “designated” services are threatened. 

The minister has already said that no A&E services in London are guaranteed. So the future of Whittington A&E 

could be under threat again, without the power for local people to take it to the Secretary of State.

I asked Mr Lansley  on the “Save the Whittington” demo if the A&E would be safe under a Tory government and he said it would. If he goes back on that promise it looks like we won’t be able to challenge the decision and him as we could before.

The abolition of Islington Primary Care Trust leaves many unanswered questions. Finsbury Health Centre stands on land owned by Islington PCT, so what will happen to the health centre? What is to stop the land being sold off? 

One thing is clear – Andrew Lansley hasn’t thought this through. His plans are reckless and will change the face of healthcare in Islington and throughout England. 

The BMA says that fewer than one in five doctors are supportive of Mr Lansley’s plans but, no matter how often it is given, he will not listen to his doctors’ advice.

Emily Thornberry is Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury.