10 March 2011

NHS 'Not Privatised Industry' BMA Warns

  The NHS should not be run in the same way as privatised industries such as water, gas, and telecommunications, the British Medical Association (BMA) said today.  

The warning comes as MPs prepare to debate the sections of the Health and Social Care Bill relating to new powers to enforce competition in the NHS in England. Under the Bill, the new economic regulator Monitor would have the same powers the Office of Fair Trading has under the 1998 Competition Act, following the model that applies to a number of privatised industries, including gas, telecommunications, electricity and water. It would also have a statutory duty to promote competition in the NHS.  

In a new briefing paper, the BMA requests amendments to the Bill removing this duty. It raises concerns that:

Monitor will focus more on enforcing competition than on the provision of effective healthcare
Fear of being open to legal challenge could divert healthcare providers and commissioners from their key task of ensuring high quality care
Existing NHS services could be at risk of arbitrary closure, despite being popular with patients and delivering high quality services

In response to concerns by the BMA, a cross-party group of MPs have started to sign a parliamentary motion outlining worries about the Bill, particularly its emphasis on increasing and enforcing competition which is feared will undermine collaborative working.

Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of Council at the BMA, said: “Whatever your views of the privatisation of other services, it is certainly not the right model for the NHS. The consequences of failure in healthcare are far more serious than in other industries. At best, providers of care will be distracted from their main responsibility of providing excellent services. At worst, hospitals will close, not necessarily for appropriate reasons, and large groups of patients will have greater difficulty in accessing the care they need. The role of the regulator should not be to enforce potentially damaging competition but to ensure comprehensive, high quality care and to protect patients.”

(BMcN/GK)