Clegg fights NHS competition body

By James Landale

Nick Clegg’s stance on the NHS watchdog places him in direct opposition to the health secretary

Nick Clegg will oppose the idea of a regulator to promote competition in the NHS as part of government health reforms, the BBC has learned.

It places him in opposition to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley who wants more competition to drive down prices.

He also criticised David Cameron for declaring his love for the NHS while taking advice from people talking up the potential for private profits.

The regulator Monitor already scrutinises hospital finances.

Mr Clegg’s intervention marks an escalation in negotiations with his Conservative partners over the Health and Social Care Bill which is currently on hold.

It will also been seen as a rebuff to the prime minister who used his speech on Monday to try to assert his political authority and ownership over the changes being made to the bill.

Addressing Lib Dem MPs and peers on Tuesday night, Mr Clegg agreed that Monitor should have a duty to push NHS collaboration rather than competition.

He has signed off a policy document, obtained by the BBC, which states that Monitor should not be established as an “economic regulator” and should instead promote and protect the interests of the patient.

Mr Clegg told party colleagues: “People get confused when one day they hear politicians declare how much they love the NHS and the next they hear people describing themselves as government advisers saying that reform is a huge opportunity for big profits for health care corporations.”

This was a reference to the prime minister’s speech in which he said it was his love for the NHS that drove him to change it, and a former NHS official now working for accountants KPMG, Mark Britnell, who is part of a group of people advising the PM on health.

Mr Britnell was quoted as saying last October that the government’s health reforms would be “a big opportunity” for private health firms who would show “no mercy” to the NHS.

Downing Street is trying to kill the idea that a “listening exercise” over the health bill is being driven by the Lib Dems.

But Mr Clegg hit back, telling his colleagues he would “never let the profit motive get in the way of the essential purposes of the NHS”.

“There must be no change in the way competition law operates in our NHS. No to establishing Monitor as an economic regulator as if health care was just like electricity or the telephone and no to giving anyone in the NHS a duty to promote competition above all else.”

The Lib Dems’ policy document, which Mr Clegg signed, is specific.

It says: “We cannot treat the NHS as if it were a utility, and the decision to establish Monitor as an “economic regulator” was clearly a misjudgement, failing to recognise all the unique characteristics of a public health service, and opening us up to accusations that we are trying to subject the NHS to the full rigours of UK and EU competition law.

“I have come to the conclusion that we must not make this change.”

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