Clegg admits mistakes over NHS overhaul

In a speech at University College London Hospital, Nick Clegg announced that the Health and Social Care Bill is to be sent back to MPs to be scrutinised and amended – in a repeat of the committee stage of the bill, which is likely to set the legislation back several months.

He assured an audience of medical professionals and patients that "there will be no privatisation of the NHS".

"The NHS has always benefited from a mix of providers, from the private sector, charities and social enterprises, and that should continue," he said.

"People want choice over their GP, where to give birth, which hospital to use. But providing that choice isn’t the same as allowing private companies to cherry-pick NHS services.

"It’s not the same as turning this treasured public service into a competition-driven, dog-eat-dog market where the NHS is flogged off to the highest bidder."

Clegg insisted that the chief duty of Monitor, the health regulator, will not be to push competition.

"Monitor’s main duty will be to protect and promote the needs of patients instead using collaboration and competition as means to that end," he said.

He also announced that GPs will not be forced to join GP commissioning consortia, until they are fully prepared.

"Yes, family doctors should be more involved in the way the NHS works. But they should only take on that responsibility when they are ready and willing, working with other medical professionals too," he explained.

"We aren’t going to just sweep away tiers of NHS management overnight. NHS managers will carry on doing the commissioning in areas where GPs aren’t yet ready. And there’ll be no sudden, top-down opening up of all NHS services to any qualified provider."

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health argued that any changes that arise as a result of the bill’s return to committee stage must maintain continuity and quality of care for disabled children and young people and those with complex health needs across health, education and social care.

The college also called on MPs to make sure that the bill strengthens the accountability and effectiveness of child protection arrangements and the healthcare of looked-after children.