Lansley defends listening exercise
Andrew Lansley dismissed claims the government’s listening exercise is not genuine.
Mr Lansley said the government had organised 119 ‘listening’ events to hear the concerns of the public and medical professionals as he defended the coalition’s NHS reforms in the Commons.
“We are taking this opportunity to pause, listen, reflect and improve the health and social care bill,” he said.
“A total of 119 events have already been organised centrally, and the regional and local NHS will be organising many more.”
But Labour MPs attacked the health secretary for refusing to say whether parliament would be able to scrutinise any changes to the bill and for increasing waiting times.
Shadow health secretary John Healey accused Mr Lansley of sending the NHS “backwards”.
He said the government had “rushed pre-legislative implementation and confused post-legislative policy-making”.
In a pointed exchange, Mr Healey said nine out of ten hospitals faced cutting costs by four percent, one in seven by eight per cent, while £2 billion would be held back for the reorganisation.
Mr Lansley accused the shadow health secretary of “cheek”, pointing to a £2.9 billion increase in the NHS budget this year.
“His government set out the £20 billion efficiency savings. His government said the NHS should be cut. His party in Wales is doing just that,” he said.
The embattled health secretary said waiting times remained “broadly stable” and dismissed Labour claims the bill would introduce “cherry-picking” or competition to the NHS.
Shadow health minister Diane Abbott said the ‘listening exercise’ was a sham, blaming Lib Dems for not voting against the bill at second reading and claimed the health secretary wanted to make “as little substantive change” as possible.
“How can we expect the public to take the listening exercise seriously?” she asked. “Aren’t they just a device to get the coalition through the May elections?”
Mr Lansley said his objective was to “further strengthen” the NHS and said the Lib Dems had originally backed the bill because “the reasons for reform are sound”.
Labour MPs were not the only ones to raise concerns as Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes demanded local councillors be given a role and Conservative chair of the health select committee Stephen Dorrell said the listening exercise should “take account of the full range of clinical opinion”.
The government launched its ‘listening’ exercise after the reforms attracted considerable opposition from both the public and members of the clinical profession.
