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Both are especially concerned that private sector involvement will expose the NHS to competition law, which they believe would be detrimental to the NHS. As Williams put it:
“If it looks as if it’s simply part of what’s becoming a private market we’ll be slap-bang in the middle of European Union competition policy, which perfectly correctly
for the private sector insists upon an absolutely level playing field all the way across, but that will destroy the NHS without any doubt.
The great danger is that the private sector is inclined to cherry pick – it takes the routine, simple, straight forward profitable operations but it doesn’t want to get involved
in the really difficult chronic ones, particularly the kind of problems that confront those who are disabled or old.”
Williams’ position is contestable: as Ed Miliband conceded in his speech this morning, New Labour opened the health market to the private sector without adverse results. Besides, Lansley’s top-down reforms are designed to create a regulated internal market within the NHS, not a laissez faire free-for-all – a point that the government does not make sufficiently clear. These fevered interventions sustain the sense of chaos accompanying the bill. Once again, the government is in danger of losing control of the communication battle.
Because you read about coalition
Also by David Blackburn
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