Urgent - Amendment to Save the Health Secretary's Duty to Provide Healthcare

Please read this post by Jonathon Tomlinson on the proposed amendments being put before the House of Lords on the duty of the health secretary to provide healthcare. Then email your adopted lord and tell them. And don't give up now; it only takes an email for goodness sake, five minutes out of voting on X Factor or complaining about your Blackberry crashing. Do it.

Ones and Twos - the Nail in the NHS's Coffin is Still There

In March, the eagle eyed Dr No wrote this blog post on what he termed 'the secret nail in the NHS's coffin'. This was a reference to a change in wording from the 2006 National Health Service Act Section 1. Section 1(1) and (2) of the 2006 Health Service Act reads as follows;

1 Secretary of State's duty to promote health service

(1) The Secretary of State must continue the promotion in England of a comprehensive health service designed to secure improvement—

(a) in the physical and mental health of the people of England, and

(b) in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness.

(2) The Secretary of State must for that purpose provide or secure the provision of services in accordance with this Act.

Under the new wording originally proposed by the Health and Social Care Bill, it would look like this;

1 Secretary of State's duty to promote health service

(1) The Secretary of State must continue the promotion in England of a comprehensive health service designed to secure improvement—

(a) in the physical and mental health of the people of England, and

(b) in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness.

.

(2) For that purpose, the Secretary of State—

(a) has the public health functions conferred by this Act, and

(b) in exercising functions in relation to a body mentioned in subsection (2A), must act with a view to securing the provision of services for the purposes of the health service in accordance with this Act.

Now, we have been banging on about this 'act with a view' phrase for the past while. It has got to be changed. We said so to the government. And the government via the DoH's Future Forum report has come back with this;

"The role of the Secretary of State

The policy is that the Secretary of State will be responsible – as now – for
promoting a comprehensive health service. The wording of section 1(1) of the 2006 NHS Act will remain unchanged in legislation, as it has since the
founding NHS Act of 1946. This will be underpinned by the new duties that
the Bill already places on the Secretary of State, around promoting quality
improvement and reducing inequalities."

Section 1(1) will remain unchanged. That's very good of them, seeing as they had not changed Section 1(1) in the first place. But what about Section 1(2), where the weasel phrase 'act with a view' cropped up? Are they going to go back to the original wording 'must for that purpose provide or secure the provision of services' ?

Guess what. It doesn't say. I think our dear government is hoping that we get our ones and twos mixed up and not notice that they have made a promise to keep precisely the same wording that they had for Section 1(1) anyway, while not promising to change the wording of Section 1(2).

The nail is still in the NHS's coffin. We must act and get the word round as quickly as we can and make it as public as we can. We are at the most dangerous moment in this debate, because Labour and the Lib Dems are in a position where they can say that the government has agreed to reforms under pressure and support the Health and Social Care Bill, rather than having to go back to the drawing board again. We have to anticipate that and make sure that there is no hiding place for the opposition on this issue and that they cannot walk by on the other side. This is serious. This is fundamental. This is the end of our health service if we don't manage to prise this nail out of the wood. Let's get to work now.