Tower Hamlets Labour Party

Uniting the East End

Rushanara Ali MP calls on Government to drop the NHS bill

Rushanara Ali MP calls on Government to drop the NHS bill

Following news today that the Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group has called on the Government to drop the Health and Social Care Bill, Rushanara Ali MP challenged Andrew Lansley MP, Secretary of State for Health, in parliament to think again and drop the bill.

Speaking in the debate following an urgent question, Rushanara Ali said:

“The Secretary of State will know that the Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group has today called on the government to drop the Bill, citing the “bureaucracy generated” as a principle reason for this.  When the very structures he has created tell him they don’t wish to be part of the nightmare system he is trying to create, isn’t it time to face up to reality and drop this bill?”

Mr Lansley failed to offer a comprehensive answer to the question but referred to clinicians in Bromley by Bow asserting that they would make full use of the powers.  However Sam Etherington, Chair of the NHS Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group and a GP in Bromley by Bow Centre, has led the local commissioning group in calling for the bill to be dropped. 

After the debate, Rushanara Ali said:

“I’ve been contacted by hundreds of my constituents who are dismayed at the impact the Government’s top down changes will have on our NHS. They are seriously concerned about the backdoor privatisation of the NHS which is the real agenda of this government – their changes will allow 49% of income in NHS hospitals to come from private patients.  Now even the doctors in his own clinical commissioning groups are calling on him to drop this bill.  When will the Government stop trying to impose their own ideological ideas on the NHS and start listening to patients and doctors?”

Cllr Rachael Saunders, Tower Hamlets Labour Group lead on health, said: 

"People in Tower Hamlets want money spent on their services, not more bureaucracy. We'll be out campaigning again across the borough this weekend, calling on Andrew Lansley to drop his failed bill".  

Many health organisations including the Royal College of General Practitioners have opposed the bill.