Labour loses health conference vote on use of independent sector
The Labour government has been defeated in a vote on its plans to expand use of the independent sector for NHS patients. A fierce debate ended with a vote by show of hands which officials said was so close that a card vote was required.
Unison put forward an amendment to current government policy, demanding a wholesale review of the role of markets and competition in the health service and an end to expansion of independent sector involvement.
It was opposed by 58 per cent of constituency Labour party delegates, and backed by 42 per cent.
But among the block union vote, 99.9 per cent backed the amendment, so that overall the government policy was backed by just 29 per cent of the vote.
At the start of yesterday’s debate, Unison general secretary David Prentis attacked the government for not consulting NHS workers on plans to remove most provision from primary care trusts. They should not be ‘denigrated as a producer interest, living in a time warp, or as dinosaurs. Our public servants deserve more from our movement and more from our government’.
The motion called for the DoH to institute an urgent review into the mix of private sector provision in the NHS, suspend the introduction of competition in primary care, and suspend the second wave of the independent treatment centres until an evaluation of the first wave had been completed.
Mr Prentis said his motion was not about ‘going back’ or ‘denying choice’. ‘It’s about a government not consulting on fundamental change.’
He said PCT reorganisation should not have been revealed ‘on the back of a letter from a civil servant’. He added: ‘Managers who should be leading - the real change makers - are now fighting for their jobs. Health visitors, community midwives, occupational therapists, district nurses - the backbone of our local community services - threatened with transfer to the private sector.’
Rounding up the debate, Ms Hewitt said: ‘The only way we will meet our promise to cut waiting times is to be able to make use of spare capacity in the independent sector.
‘This is not privatisation. We are not selling off NHS hospitals and turning them over to the private sector. We are not compromising our values that the NHS should be free at the point of need.’
She said unions had agreed at Warwick last year with the Labour party that there should be a ‘greater plurality of providers’ in healthcare, and that choice should be extended to primary care.
‘We will stick to the promises we made and the agreements we reached and everyone else who was part of these agreements should do the same thing,’ she said.
http://www.labourconference.hsj.co.uk/news28.shtml
Unison put forward an amendment to current government policy, demanding a wholesale review of the role of markets and competition in the health service and an end to expansion of independent sector involvement.
It was opposed by 58 per cent of constituency Labour party delegates, and backed by 42 per cent.
But among the block union vote, 99.9 per cent backed the amendment, so that overall the government policy was backed by just 29 per cent of the vote.
At the start of yesterday’s debate, Unison general secretary David Prentis attacked the government for not consulting NHS workers on plans to remove most provision from primary care trusts. They should not be ‘denigrated as a producer interest, living in a time warp, or as dinosaurs. Our public servants deserve more from our movement and more from our government’.
The motion called for the DoH to institute an urgent review into the mix of private sector provision in the NHS, suspend the introduction of competition in primary care, and suspend the second wave of the independent treatment centres until an evaluation of the first wave had been completed.
Mr Prentis said his motion was not about ‘going back’ or ‘denying choice’. ‘It’s about a government not consulting on fundamental change.’
He said PCT reorganisation should not have been revealed ‘on the back of a letter from a civil servant’. He added: ‘Managers who should be leading - the real change makers - are now fighting for their jobs. Health visitors, community midwives, occupational therapists, district nurses - the backbone of our local community services - threatened with transfer to the private sector.’
Rounding up the debate, Ms Hewitt said: ‘The only way we will meet our promise to cut waiting times is to be able to make use of spare capacity in the independent sector.
‘This is not privatisation. We are not selling off NHS hospitals and turning them over to the private sector. We are not compromising our values that the NHS should be free at the point of need.’
She said unions had agreed at Warwick last year with the Labour party that there should be a ‘greater plurality of providers’ in healthcare, and that choice should be extended to primary care.
‘We will stick to the promises we made and the agreements we reached and everyone else who was part of these agreements should do the same thing,’ she said.
http://www.labourconference.hsj.co.uk/news28.shtml
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