Wednesday 7 March 2012

We need to save the NHS Bill - this is why

Rather against my better judgement, I wrote a blog on Lib Dem Voice asking why so many of my colleagues were in such a hurry to dump the NHS Bill.  Responses seem to be divided on the issue so far, but the basic issue seems to me to be:

We would be insane to leave the NHS as it was bequeathed to us by Blair and Brown, and we have the opportunity - thanks to the Lib Dem Lords - to shift the balance towards solving the real problems of the NHS, not the ones that McKinsey would like is to tackle.

And no, just to answer one of the comments, I'm not against all competition - some services will always be better than others, and so it should be - but not only am I against the kind of inappropriate layer of competition bureaucracy that New Labour bolted onto a hideously target-driven structure, but so are our Lords.  As a result, the NHS Bill looks set to be a good deal better than the status quo:

http://www.libdemvoice.org/opinion-save-the-nhs-bill-27445.html

And while we're about it, thank you Dan Falchikov for an interesting and sensible response:

http://livingonwords.blogspot.com/2012/03/david-boyle-sums-up-my-thoughts-on-nhs.html

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