Cameron and Lansley criticised on NHS reform

The Prime Minister had been accused by Labour of insulting “millions of NHS staff” with his comments. Mr Cameron was defending the plans for reform of the National Health Service and the speed with which the shake-up is being introduced. In an interview, Mr Cameron said that patients should not have to settle for “second rate” healthcare. He corrected himself, fearing that health professionals would take a very dim view of his assessment. Labour seized on the slip with John Healey, the shadow health secretary, saying that improvements in the NHS were clear for everyone to see. He said: “David Cameron also seems to see the NHS as second rate when everybody else has seen big improvements by Labour in recent years and public satisfaction is now at an all time high. This is an insult to millions of NHS staff. – the Telegraph

The public will soon see for itself the dangers warned of by the medical profession, the Tory-led Commons health select committee, the royal colleges and the independent King’s Fund. The government has skilfully focused all attention on what seems most patient-friendly and easy to understand. Your trusted GP will be in charge of an £80bn budget for your care. Faceless bureaucrats in unknown primary care trusts will be swept away, half of all NHS managers sacked and replaced by your wise GP buying whatever you choose, with no diktats from above. In reality those commissioning services will be more distant from patients, as local PCTs are replaced by far larger clusters of consortiums – some run by the same managers expensively sacked and re-employed, but more by private companies. A survey by Pulse magazine found six out of 10 of the first consortiums are negotiating with private companies to run their referrals. It may or may not hold together, but at a time of famine the price tag is £2bn-£3bn: the real cost of these political re-disorganisations is never fully computed. – the Guardian Read the rest of this entry »

Miliband: ‘Our plans involved cuts’

Mr Miliband, a former adviser to Mr Brown, yesterday became the latest Labour figure to say that he had been wrong to “pretend” that cuts were avoidable. “We should have acknowledged earlier, after the financial crisis happened, that eventually there would have to be cuts under Labour,” Mr Miliband said. “Our plans involved cuts and we should have acknowledged that. The problem we faced was that we sometimes looked like we were pretending there weren’t going to be cuts under Labour, when there were.” The Labour leader also said that the party should “take our responsibility for not having regulated the banks sufficiently, along with governments around the world.” The UK economy was over-reliant on the financial sector and “too exposed” the financial crisis, he said. – the Telegraph

British Medical Association: ‘NHS reforms hugely risky’

Health reforms planned by the Government are “extraordinarily risky” and could lead to lower standards of care, a report from the NHS Confederation is expected to warn. The organisation, which represents hospitals and primary care trusts, agrees reform is needed but will criticise Health Secretary Andrew Lansley for failing to explain how the changes will benefit patients, the Observer reported. Mr Lansley is expected to publish the Health and Social Care Bill on Wednesday. His reforms will hand GPs responsibility for around 80% of the NHS budget and abolish primary care trusts. “Price competition”, which will allow hospitals to undercut each other to attract patients, could risk standards of care, the NHS Confederation is set to warn. – Sky

Miliband condemns strike action for Royal wedding

Ed Miliband yesterday condemned the prospect of unions timing industrial action to coincide with the Royal Wedding in April or next year’s Olympic Games. The Labour leader urged them against organising co-ordinated strikes to protest against cuts, warning them the tactic would be a return to the “heroic failures” of the 1980s. His comments marked his latest effort to rebut Tory accusations that he is “Red Ed”, with an agenda dictated by the large unions that bankroll his party. Some union officials have suggested that London Underground workers could strike on 29 April, the day of Prince William’s marriage to Kate Middleton. Mr Miliband told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show: “I am appalled at the idea of strikes to disrupt people going to the Royal Wedding. It alienates the public, and it is not the way to make the political argument we need to make.” Aides said he would be delivering the same message in a meeting with union leaders this week. – the Independent

News Corporation braces itself for further lawsuits

News Corporation executives have been considering how to draw a line under the News of the World phone-hacking affair as the Rupert Murdoch-controlled publisher of the tabloid – via its News GroupNewspapers subsidiary – braces itself for further celebrity lawsuits in the coming weeks. This weekend it emerged that former England footballer Paul Gascoigneis planning to sue the paper, claiming his phone was hacked, while others are poised to act after being told that they were referred to in the notebooks of Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator employed by the tabloid who was jailed for his part in hacking into phones belonging to aides of Princes William and Harry. The drip-drip of accusations has left News Corp wondering how much more it has to endure, at a time when the company is already quietly softening its legal approach when it is being sued. Previously News Corp had sought to settle cases, paying Gordon Taylor, head of the Professional Footballers’ Association, and publicist Max Clifford, about £1m each. Now it is letting the cases run, partly to see what evidence there is of hacking by NoW reporters, and also because it does not want to be treated as a “piggy bank” by high-profile claimants. – the Guardian

Ed says Labour made mistakes

Ed Miliband yesterday urged unhappy Lib Dems to work with him to fight the Government’s cuts. He condemned Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg’s decision to sign up to the coalition as a “tragic mistake”. The Labour leader said he was pleased many Lib Dems “now see Labour as the main vehicle for their hopes”. He admitted Labour made “serious mistakes” in Government, losing voters’ trust by being too slow by being too slow to admit the need for cuts or regulate the banks. – the Mirror

Ed Miliband tore into Labour‘s style of government under Tony Blair andGordon Brown today as he promised to rebuild a grassroots movement that would go beyond “the bureaucratic state” and look to local people for answers. Seeking to sustain momentum after the party’s success in last week’s Oldham East and Saddleworth byelection, the Labour leader insisted the party would only move forward if it understood how and why it “lost touch with people’s daily struggle” during 13 years in power. Miliband told the Fabian Society that he was proud of much that Labour did in office, but that its failure to regulate the markets and, latterly, its belief that the state knew best, left it remote from the people it existed to serve. – the Observer

The Labour leader appealed to disaffected Lib Dems to work with him to oppose the spending cuts being implemented by the Coalition Government. Mr Miliband said the decision by Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, to enter government with the Conservatives was a “tragic mistake” and he declared himself ready to co-operate with the Lib Dems “in Parliament and outside it”. Mr Miliband, who has been faced accusations of a lacklustre performance since becoming leader, admitted his party had made mistakes and needed to change course. In a speech to the Fabian Society, Mr Miliband acknowledged that Labour had lost voters’ trust by failing to regulate banks, seeming “in thrall” to the markets and remote from ordinary people’s values. – Telegraph

Lansley under fire

Hospitals will have to close, patient care could be hit and treatment rationed by GPs because of the government’s controversial shake-up of the NHS, health bosses and medical leaders have warned. The biggest restructuring of the service since its creation in 1948 is described as “extraordinarily risky” by NHS leaders and medical groups in a new report. The analysis by the NHS Confederation – comprising the British Medical Association, the Faculty of Public Health and the royal colleges representing GPs, surgeons and hospital doctors – comes ahead of publication of the government’s flagship Health and Social Care Bill on Wednesday. The report accepts the need for reform but criticises the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, for failing to persuade patients and health professionals that his radical proposals to hand the power to commission services to GPs will improve the NHS, and for not doing enough to boost patient power. – the Observer

Cameron turns down Coulson resignation

David Cameron refused to accept the resignation of his communications chief, Andy Coulson, over the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, it was reported last night. Tensions inside Number 10 have mounted over the potential damage caused to the government’s reputation by allegations of voice-mail hacking and mobile phone interception at the Sunday red-top when Mr Coulson was its editor. After a series of rows with Downing Street policy chief Steve Hilton, Mr Coulson offered to quit, according to The Mail on Sunday. However, both Mr Cameron and George Osborne, the Chancellor, are said to have refused to accept the resignation and vowed to stand by Mr Coulson, who has played a key role in overseeing the coalition’s media strategy. “Andy has said sorry to the PM for the embarrassment caused by the phone-bugging saga,” a source, described as a “well placed insider”, told The MoS. “He said it was making it difficult to do his job properly but he was doing his best.” – the Independent

Yes vs. No

The battle to overhaul Britain’s voting system is wide open, with almost two-thirds of people amenable to ditching first past the post. An exclusive poll for The Independent on Sunday says a third (34 per cent) have already decided to back the alternative vote in the referendum planned for 5 May, a vote which Labour peers are seeking to delay. But the ComRes survey reveals 61 per cent could be persuaded to support changing the voting system when they have heard more of the arguments for and against. Surprisingly, 54 per cent of Conservative voters are open to persuasion. It comes as the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said he would honour his pledge to campaign in favour of AV. “The reason politics is discredited is because politicians always break their promises,” he said. In a speech to a Fabian Society, he also made a direct appeal to Liberal Democrats unhappy at their party’s “tragic mistake” in joining the Tories in government. – the Independent