Midwives fear NHS reforms will destabilise care for mothers and babies
Joe Lepper
Monday, May 9, 2011
Midwives are the latest group of health professionals to hit out at coalition government plans to introduce more competition to the NHS.
The Health and Social Care Bill aims to hand over control of local NHS budgets to GP consortia and make it easier for private firms as well as voluntary and community organisations to run services.
But Cathy Warwick, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, said midwives are "becoming increasingly uncomfortable about the direction of NHS reforms".
She said: "The level of competition that the reforms will bring in will lead to fragmentation of services. Trusts will be competing against each other not collaborating, and collaboration not competition is the key to better care. This would be a backward step for maternity services."
She added that reform on the scale being proposed will destabilise the NHS at a time when financial cuts are already threatening to harm services.
"These reforms are too much, too soon, too fast and mothers, babies and midwives will suffer because of it," she said.
The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) also released a damning response to the bill today in its report The Government Health Reforms: An Analysis of the Need for Clarification and Change.
It states that "wholesale reorganisation" being proposed is unnecessary and so far the government has not been clear about the impact of reform on patients. It calls for 24 revisions to the bill, such as retaining GP practice boundaries to preserve the bond between families and local doctors.
Dr Clare Gerada, RCGP chair, said: "The reforms promote competition without sufficient clarification of how services to patients will be safeguarded and improved."
Already Liberal Democrat MPs and the Royal College of Nursing have expressed concern over the bill, especially the government’s lack of consultation. The bill is in hiatus while the government consults health professionals.
Health secretary Andrew Lansley has sought to reassure health professionals that competition in the NHS will be "based in quality not on price".
He said: "Making sure competition works for patients is important. That is why we are looking at the role of choice and competition for improving quality as part of our listening exercise, and we want to hear from all parties interested in protecting the NHS for the future."