NHS faces toxic cocktail of reforms say unions

The TUC published a list of concerns from NHS workers over the changes, including fears that they were still based on extending competition and markets, and that hospitals would be allowed to maximise their income from private patients.

NHS patients would then be “pushed” to the back of growing waiting lists, said the TUC, a claim strongly denied by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.

The TUC’s report said that once the Health and Social Care Bill becomes law, whole swathes of the health service will be opened up to private firms.

The changes were being “forced through” at a time when the NHS was already being asked to find £20bn worth of efficiency savings, said the TUC.

General secretary Brendan Barber said: “If MPs don’t reject the Bill, we will be calling on Peers to use their powers to the full to save the NHS.

“Neither coalition party said they would undermine the NHS in this way in their manifestos, and the Government has absolutely no mandate for this toxic cocktail of competition, markets and cuts.”

The TUC will hold a vigil outside Parliament as MPs vote on the Bill tomorrow evening.

Unite national officer Rachael Maskell said: “David Cameron promised he would not privatise the NHS. Yet the Health and Social Care Bill will open up lucrative NHS contracts to private health care companies whose main aim is to maximise profits for their shareholders.”

Unite accused the Government of trying to “frogmarch” 1,000 amendments through the House of Commons in just two days this week during the third reading of the bill. Unite said hundreds of GPs in its Medical Practitioners’ Union (MPU) section had signed a petition calling for the Bill’s withdrawal.

Dr Ron Singer, MPU president, said: “At what is a critical week for the future of the NHS, a substantial number of commissioning GPs have expressed their anger at the direction of Government policy, which we believe will herald the large-scale privatisation of the health service.”