How significant is shadow health secretary Andy Burnham's pledge to repeal the Health and Social Care Bill once/if Labour get into power? It is what a lot of Bill critics have been asking for and his announcement at the Royal College of Midwives annual conference could be seen as playing to the gallery. But then that seems to be the main occupation of any politician. His post-speech interview with the Guardian newspaper tempered the news. Labour would not introduce yet another giant reorganisation to bring the NHS back to what it was in May 2010. It would scrap market-based reforms and the 'most damaging aspects of [Health Secretary] Lansley's plan'. We are not yet half way through a full-term government. There is still plenty of time for things to change. Indeed, Mr Burnham has not given up on the battle to stop the Bill as it goes through the House of Lords now. But how will the clinical commissioning groups and private companies, busy preparing for the brave new world of Andrew Lansley's reforms, respond to Mr Burnham's challenge?
Mr Lansley has also caused a furore by refusing to publish a document that details potential risks of the health reforms. He said it would be 'misleading'. However, the information commissioner disagreed, saying disclosure served the public interest more than keeping the document's contents hidden.
Burnham and Lansley clashed more than once this week. The shadow health secretary jumped in with 'told you so' after the government said it would have to tackle the slip in waiting times since it took power — a problem rooted in the revision to the operating framework in summer of 2010 that told the NHS monitoring performance on some waiting times would cease. Andrew Lansley appeared indignant that the NHS should be so lax as to allow its standards to slip. But the situation is embarrassing for him personally, suggesting the problem is bad enough for him to have to take the flak for failing to treat it seriously in the first place.
Private healthcare company Circle is to take over the running of Hinchingbrooke Hospital in the New Year; the first non-NHS organisation to make such a deal. There are many conditions attached to the deal that curtail full-blown control over hiring and firing of staff. Nonetheless, the unions are unhappy and see it as the 'thin end of the wedge'. Others, such as the Royal College of Nursing are more sanguine. But what is the long-term future for such deals if Labour moves into Downing Street?
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