IN PLACE OF BEVAN?

FOUNDATION HOSPITALS BILL HITS NEW OPPOSITION

Foundation Hospitals legislation now before parliament runs into fresh
controversy today with the publication of an academic analysis showing how
the measure destroys fundamental NHS principles.

A briefing on the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards)
Bill prepared by the Public Health Policy Unit at UCL and published by the
independent think-tank Catalyst is being sent to MPs in advance of next
week's Commons vote.

It has the backing of the Society for Social Medicine, which has a
membership of several thousand public health professionals and academics,
and the NHS Consultants' Association, an influential campaigning body made
up of NHS doctors.

The report's authors show how the Bill turns NHS hospitals into businesses
without properly safeguarding the public. They say: "A comprehensive and
universal care system aiming for equity through planning is being replaced
by a market system of fragmented and competing providers."

The result, say the authors, will be greater inequality with access to
hospital "on the basis of ability to pay, and where the level and quality
of provision will depend on the wealth and resources of local communities."

Professor Allyson Pollock, one of the authors, said:

"If passed this bill will mark the end of Bevan's great vision for the NHS.
Bevan put fairness before markets. This government puts markets before
fairness. That is why it has decided the NHS must go."

Dr Peter Fisher, chair of the NHS Consultants' Association, said:

"This careful analysis of the clauses relating to the setting up of
Foundation Hospital Trusts reveals what a major change this would be and
how inadequate are the safeguards to be provided by the office of
Independent Regulator.

"The NHS would bear a disturbing resemblance to the other former public
enterprises now in private hands. The Bill states "An NHS Foundation Trust
is not to be regarded as a servant of the Crown nor its property as held on
behalf of the Crown". Although it would not technically be privatised,
treatment still being free at the point of use, it would be a major step in
that direction, leaving it very vulnerable.

"The departure of the Secretary of State, whose project this was, gives
Government an excellent opportunity to reconsider the wisdom of forcing
through a highly controversial scheme at a time when the NHS and its
patients desperately need a period of stability and harmony."

The briefing is being sent to MPs in advance of next week's Third Reading
and can be downloaded from the Catalyst website at
www.catalystforum.org.uk
or from the Public Health Policy Unit website at
www.ucl.ac.uk/phpu

James Lancaster
Public Health Policy Unit          t:  44 (0)20 7679 4985 (UCL: 24985)
School of Public Policy             f:  44 (0)20 7916 8536
UCL                                       e: [log in to unmask]
29-30 Tavistock Square
London WC1H 9QU                www.ucl.ac.uk/phpu