Health and Care Bill - NHS Restructuring

Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about the Health and Care Bill (now Act) and NHS restructuring.

In my view, this legislation represents a rushed, top-down reorganisation that will fail to integrate care and erode local accountability. It will do nothing to address workforce shortages or improve the standards of health and social care.

I voted against the Bill at Second and Third Reading. With Government support, it progressed. But I have worked tirelessly with my colleagues to allay some of the most controversial aspects of it.

I recognise your concerns that private sector involvement in NHS services has created a fragmented and marketised system. The Health and Social Care Act 2012, which I have consistently opposed, introduced competitive tendering, forced privatisation, and prevented proper integration.

This new legislation overturns many aspects of the 2012 Act, including an end to compulsory competitive tendering. And at every stage, the Opposition sought to amend the Health and Care Bill to remove any possibility that private firms can have any role on the boards of the new Integrated Care Systems, as well as ensuring that they are transparent, have robust governance arrangements in place and are properly held to account.

It is important is to ensure that potential conflicts of interest are avoided, particularly that members with private sector interests should not be appointed to such bodies. Following pressure, the Government amended the Bill to avoid conflict of interest and prevent chairs of these new boards appointing members involved with the private sector who could undermine the independence of the health service.

There is, in my view, an incompatibility between the aims of private companies and the aims of the NHS. A company’s primary concern is the shareholders, not the patients.

I am committed to upholding the NHS’s founding principles as a comprehensive, integrated, and public NHS that is there for all of us when we need it. I will continue to resist any plans to allow further privatisation.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this issue.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP