Delaying tactic could put NHS reforms at risk

Health Minister Earl Howe warned the move posed “an unacceptable risk to the passage of this Bill and hence the Government’s programme for the health service”.

With today’s vote expected to be on a knife-edge, an instant petition launched by the 38 Degrees lobby group raised more than 80,000 signatures in less than a day urging peers to back the Owen plan.

And more than 60 leading medical professionals called in a letter for the reforms to be substantially rewritten or scrapped altogether.

Supported by a string of celebrities including fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood and comedian Russell Brand, they warned the British public still did not support the plans.

A survey of 1,890 psychiatrists found only one in 10 believed the Bill will lead to better patient care.

The poll, for the Royal College of Psychiatrists, also revealed 84 per cent believe the College should call for the Bill to be withdrawn.

College president Professor Sue Bailey described the findings as “extremely worrying”, adding: “History tells us that in times of economic restraint, when combined with major reform, those with mental health problems fare the worst.”

Lord Howe defended the proposed changes, insisting they would “liberate the NHS” and improve patient care in England.

He told peers the Bill was “of profound importance” for the quality and delivery of healthcare for patients, who currently got a “poor deal”.

Modernisation had to involve a “fundamental shift in the balance of power, away from politicians and on to patients themselves through increased choice and information, and on to doctors and health professionals, giving them real budgets and empowering them ... to drive up quality.”

Lord Howe said that he had been unable to reach agreement with Lord Owen on a time limit for the proposed special committee, and therefore urged peers to reject the former SDP leader’s amendment.

Lord Owen denied the amendment was a “blocking measure”, but warned Parliament would be “in very serious trouble” from the public if it passed NHS reforms which went wrong.

A special select committee was the only way of looking at “the complexity of this new relationship we are trying to establish”.

“Health is not a public utility,” warned Lord Owen. Health is different.”

Baroness (Joan) Bakewell, a campaigner for older people, warned that “the old are not well served by this Bill, and yet they are overwhelmingly the most frequent users of NHS services”.

And high-profile Liberal Democrat critic of the reforms Baroness (Shirley) Williams said that the Government would not carry the public of England with it if it seemed that the NHS was being moved “away from the concept of an altruistic health service to one that is essentially money-based”.

Labour opposed the Bill in the Commons.

Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham has offered to work with the Government on changes to commissioning if Ministers drop the legislation.

The party’s spokeswoman in the Lords, Baroness Thornton, warned the Bill would turn “patient choice into shopping” and make healthcare “a traded commodity”, while Labour peer Lord Rea took the unusual step of tabling a bid to deny the legislation a second reading in the Upper House.

But Labour’s former health minister Lord Darzi said the NHS “must embrace change” because “to stand still is to fall back”.