NHS 'is out of control', says Tory health minister

[dutchman]

A Tory health minister was at the centre of controversy after she was secretly recorded saying that the government could no longer exert much day-to-day control over the increasingly stretched NHS.



The public health minister, Jane Ellison, told a private meeting of the Tory Reform Group that providing political direction to the NHS was like being on a high wire without a safety net – which she described as "exciting".

The remarks were seized on by Labour as evidence that coalition reforms of the NHS driven through by Andrew Lansley, before he was sacked as health secretary in 2012, have created far more confusion and less clear lines of command, rather than greater efficiency. Labour accused Ellison and other ministers of trying to wash their hands of responsibility for the coalition's reforms, as NHS costs soar, waiting lists rise and more and more people are unable to see a GP swiftly. On the tape, leaked to the Observer, the minister appears to place responsibility for the government's declining influence on the NHS on the reforms themselves, saying that power has been given away without the public realising. Ellison, a health minister since last October, said that Lansley's successor Jeremy Hunt had done a "brilliant job", "turning the narrative round" from one focused on reform of NHS structures to one focusing on patients and patient care.

At the meeting, on 8 June, she also said that people were unaware who was responsible for the NHS today. "I don't know how much any of you realise that with the Lansley act we pretty much gave away control of the NHS, which means that the thing that most people talk about in terms of health [the NHS] … we have some important strategic mechanisms but we don't really have day-to-day control.

"From a political point of view, it is a bit like being on a high wire without a net at times, it can be quite exciting."

Anger at the reforms was compounded because Lansley's plans were not spelled out in detail in the 2010 Conservative manifesto and they were driven through despite Cameron's promises that he would not allow further "top down" reorganisation.

The Lansley act paved the way for groups of GPs, who were given budgets to buy care for their communities, to be formed into clinical commissioning groups. These groups can buy in care from the private sector. Many responsibilities of the Department of Health were moved to a new, politically independent NHS Commissioning Board, now called NHS England.

GPs and others have complained that, in place of the old system, new layers of bureaucracy have sprouted up and it is often unclear who is responsible for what.

Labour claims that, rather than improving the NHS, the reforms have made it worse, with rising costs – including estimates that the NHS will face a £20bn-£30bn annual funding gap by 2020 , lengthening waiting lists and increasing delays for patients wanting appointments with their GP.

[rebbonk]

The NHS is a political football, and has been for many years now.

It really is time that these muppets grew up and stopped playing around with it.

[dutchman]

It's going to be sold off, regardless of how unpopular that may be and regardless of which party is in power. There is too much profit at stake and too many backhanders on offer to be ignored. Private firms have already spent millions lobbying MPs for the parts of the NHS they want carved up.

[rebbonk]

But of course, the private sector won't want certain parts (not enough profit) so after the tax payer has been raped, he'll be left funding what the private sector can't use.

BOHICA!