The NHS changes affect only England The BBC has learned that Conservative MPs are organising to oppose changes that Nick Clegg wants to make to the government health overhaul in England.
One MP, Nick de Bois, who sits on the parliamentary committee looking at the NHS Bill, has set out a series of “red lines” from which he says his fellow Tories should not retreat.
Some of them appear to clash directly with proposals from the deputy PM.
The NHS Bill is currently on hold while ministers consider objections to it.
In an e-mail sent to all Conservative MPs and obtained by the BBC, Mr de Bois says there has been talk of “concerning change” to the NHS Bill from “our coalition partners” – the Lib Dems.
He says critics of the bill have so far “made their voices the loudest”, and calls on his fellow Tories to set out their own red lines – “the principles on which we will not budge”.
He says those should include:
The declaration that any qualified provider, including private companies and charities, should be able to provide care. Mr de Bois said: “Government should do nothing that stands in their way”, but Mr Clegg said earlier on Thursday there would be “no sudden, top-down opening up of all NHS services to any qualified provider”A clear date – April 2013 – “when statutory responsibility must transfer from the top-down bureaucracy to GP consortia”. Mr de Bois said this was “a very reasonable period of time”, but Mr Clegg said there should be “no arbitrary deadline”The requirement for all GPs to take on these new responsibilities, right across England. Mr de Bois said “there must be no two-tier NHS”, but Mr Clegg said this change should be introduced in a “planned, phased way”
Mr De Bois asks Tory MPs to share their views and adds: “I am determined that we reclaim the debate over the future of the National Health Service from those who seek to use the bill as a political tool.”
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