Author Archives: Charles West

Charles West

Opinion: Why the Leader’s letter hardened our Health Bill motion

By Charles West | Thu 8th March 2012 - 6:28 pm

For a year a group of Liberal Democrats who know something about the NHS and the delivery of healthcare have been working to modify Lansley’s Health Bill with the aim of preventing irreversible damage to the NHS.

Until last week our draft motion still offered the hope of amending the Bill. When we saw Nick’s letter we realised that there was no point.

On preventing competition by price the letter is doubly misleading. David Nicholson warned about this in January 2011 and the Government conceded the point in February. However, even now competition on price has not been completely prevented. Government Peers …

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