Tag Archives: NHS

James Baker

The Independent View: Selling our NHS data is not putting us in control of our health records

By James Baker | Mon 5th December 2011 - 2:55 pm

Back in 2010 there was a wave of optimism amongst civil liberties campaigners, especially those of us concerned with protecting privacy from an over-bearing database state. Not only did the coalition agreement set out a promise to scrap ID cards and its associated population register, there were other promises too: “We will end the storage of internet and email records without good reason” and then on page 25 of the coalition agreement the statement that “We will put patients in charge of making decisions about their care, including control of their health records”.

In our briefing document ‘Privacy Under Threat’ …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged | 25 Comments
Don Foster MP

Don Foster MP writes… It’s time we talked about toilets!

By Don Foster MP | Sat 19th November 2011 - 11:45 am

Here in the UK, a toilet is a necessity that we are lucky enough to take for granted – a subject for humour, or something we’d prefer not to talk about.

Yet for billions of people around the world, sanitation is a serious issue. With a staggering 2.6 billion – nearly 40% of the world’s population – living without basic, safe sanitation, it’s time we talked about toilets. It’s a shocking fact that diarrhoea, caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation, is the biggest killer of children under five in Africa. In fact, globally it kills more children every year …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 7 Comments
Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb MP writes: Why we need to keep an open mind on Hinchingbrooke

By Norman Lamb MP | Thu 17th November 2011 - 11:53 am

Last week’s announcement that the management of Hinchingbrooke Hospital would be transferred to Circle Healthcare was always going to be controversial – a hospital with debts approaching £40million, whose situation had become so perilous that it had to be rescued by an external provider. Both Labour and Unison quickly exclaimed against this as ‘privatisation,’ despite the fact that the Labour Government had initiated the tendering process.

Circle is a 49% employee-owned organisation, different from the traditional private company. It makes them a part-mutual organisation run in the same manner as John Lewis. Put simply, they are part-owned and part-run …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 13 Comments
Chris Rennard

Chris Rennard writes… How to keep people with diabetes out of hospital

By Chris Rennard | Thu 3rd November 2011 - 8:45 am

On Tuesday, I helped to launch a report ‘Keeping People with Diabetes out of Hospital‘. As a person with diabetes, I know only too well the pressure that our diabetes care services are under.

Whether I’m speaking to my Diabetes Specialist Nurse, to my consultant, or to my colleagues in Westminster, it is clear that the ‘diabetes epidemic’ is increasingly being recognised as of major concern. Of the 2.9 million people in the UK living with diabetes, a worrying proportion will suffer additional complications and will require hospital care. In the last year alone, another 130,000 people have been …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 12 Comments
Mark Pack

A trio of Tory / Liberal Democrat disagreements in government

By Mark Pack | Wed 26th October 2011 - 11:55 pm

Like London buses, Tory / Liberal Democrat disagreements are coming along all bunched together at the moment:

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has criticised “climate sceptics” and others who he argues are decrying the UK’s potential for renewable power … His comments are being interpreted by some as a riposte to Chancellor George Osborne who is believed to be more sceptical about the investment needed. (BBC)

Vince Cable rejects proposal to abolish unfair dismissal laws: Business secretary said plan devised by strategist Steve Hilton was unnecessary and unlikely to improve labour market flexibility (The Guardian)

In order to safeguard the NHS, free at

…

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Nick T

LibLink: Paul Tyler – The Lords are listening, but not to rent-a-mob email campaigns

By Nick T | Wed 26th October 2011 - 12:58 pm

Over on the Guardian’s Comment Is Free, Lib Dem peer Lord (Paul) Tyler has a piece on the (not particularly successful) campaign by 38-Degrees to lobby members of the House of Lords over health reform.

Here’s a sample:

As a peer who received many 38 Degrees-inspired communications in the runup to the debate over the NHS bill, I can say with some confidence that their lack of influence was strongly linked to the unduly polarising approach they took to this issue. They picked the wrong battle, and the wrong argument.

Their battle was essentially on whether to

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , and | 12 Comments
Mark Pack

In other news…

By Mark Pack | Wed 19th October 2011 - 11:31 pm

On the NHS:

Liberal Democrats may win a key concession on the controversial Health and Social Bill before the legislation is passed, PoliticsHome has learned.

Sources have indicated that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, including key rebel Baroness Williams, have struck a deal which would allow Lib Dem peers currently opposed to the legislation to secure changes to the role of the Health Secretary. They are currently concerned that the Bill will mean the Secretary of State is not responsible for ensuring that patients across the country receive the same services and standards of care.

PoliticsHome understands that the responsibility of the Health

…

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Baroness Liz Barker

Baroness Liz Barker writes… The Health and Social Care Bill in the Lords

By Baroness Liz Barker | Mon 17th October 2011 - 2:53 pm

I have spent my entire working life in the field of health and social care. For many years I worked for Age Concern and for all my time in the Lords I have been a member of the Health and Social Care team. I am, and always will be, a passionate supporter of an NHS which is free at the point of need and open to all regardless of their ability to pay.

Although the Health and Social Care Bill only came to the Lords this week I have been working on it for several months along with Liberal Democrat colleagues, including …

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Mark Pack

Personal Demographics Service: Department of Health

By Mark Pack | Sun 16th October 2011 - 9:50 am

I’ve blogged before about some of the security issues around the NHS’s Personal Demographics Service – a mammoth database with 80,000,000 personal records in it, yet with 700,000 people granted access to it – and with such limited auditing systems that experts have concluded it is “incredibly difficult if not impossible” to detect or trace misuse of the data.

So it was good to see Julian Huppert take up with issue with a Parliamentary question, asking the Department of Health what assessments it has made of how adequate the safeguards in the PDS really are at preventing illegal access to …

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Chris Nicholson

Opinion: If the cap doesn’t fit, don’t wear it

By Chris Nicholson | Mon 26th September 2011 - 2:25 pm

The NHS Emergency Motion which was not debated at Conference in Birmingham had a clause that stated the cap on Private Patient Income (PPI) by NHS Foundation trusts should be retained. Shirley Williams has since stated that this is one of four main aspects of the bill which she will be trying to change in the House of Lords.

But Lib Dem peers would be wrong to press for retention of the cap. Even for those who want to preserve a strongly public sector provided NHS the retention of the Private Patient Income (PPI) cap makes no sense.

The cap limits the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem Voice survey shows members narrowly oppose Coalition’s NHS reforms

By Stephen Tall | Thu 22nd September 2011 - 1:55 pm

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 550 party members responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results.

Lib Dem members vote 43% to 37% against Coalition’s NHS reforms

LDV asked: The Health and Social Care Bill which will implement radical reforms to the NHS was passed on 6 September. The Bill was changed significantly to reflect Lib Dem policy proposals passed at the Spring conference. Critics say the changes do not go far enough to address concerns that the Bill will lead to creeping privatisation of the NHS. The Bill’s supporters say that the reforms will introduce more patient choice and improve healthcare. From what you have read or heard about these plans, do you support or oppose the Bill overall?

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged | 8 Comments
Andrew George

Andrew George MP writes… The NHS Bill is putting our health service at risk

By Andrew George | Sat 17th September 2011 - 8:45 am

Liberal Democrats can reasonably claim to have been the architects and cheerleaders of the NHS. However, we now run the risk of being cast as the office juniors and apologists for the architects of its demise.

I used these words when I addressed the Spring Conference in Sheffield this year; during the debate which soundly castigated the Government’s controversial Health & Social Care Bill and which precipitated the unprecedented ‘pause’.

Though the media didn’t give us credit, two thirds of ‘unfettered’ (by Ministerial or other office) Liberal Democrat MPs rebelled in last week’s debate and votes on the Bill.

In spite of the …

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Posted in Op-eds | 11 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Mark Pack – How the health bill will be handled at conference

By NewsHound | Mon 12th September 2011 - 6:21 pm

Over on his work blog, The Voice’s Mark Pack has written about how the health issue is likely to be handled at party conference:

The plan for the party’s autumn conference was straight-forward: talk up the party’s achievements in getting the Health and Social Care Bill changed, have a question & answer session to let people discuss but not disrupt the revised legislation and move on to talk about other issues.

That plan has been under assault, however, from health rebels within the Liberal Democrats who do not believe the changes have gone far enough.

You can read Mark’s post here.

Posted in Conference and LibLink | Also tagged | 13 Comments
Tom Smith

Opinion: Seize the opportunities in the NHS reforms

By Tom Smith | Wed 7th September 2011 - 4:10 pm

The Health and Social Care Bill looks like it will have a bumpy ride through the Commons when Parliament returns this week. There are furious complaints from 38 degrees and others that the reforms will introduce privatisation by the back door, open up the NHS to being subject to competition law and allow the Secretary of State to wash his hands of the NHS altogether. Whatever the merits of these arguments, they somewhat miss the point.

The argument over the inclusion or otherwise of the Secretary of State’s responsibility to provide a comprehensive service in the Bill is …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 29 Comments
Paul Walter

PMQs: Nadine Dorries leaves the PM speechless

By Paul Walter | Wed 7th September 2011 - 1:23 pm

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Posted in News and PMQs | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 8 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Shirley Williams – Why this flawed bill threatens the very future of the NHS

By NewsHound | Sun 4th September 2011 - 6:32 pm

Writing in today’s Observer, Liberal Democrat peer Shirley Williams says:

As the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill has ground on, the doubts and questions that accompany it have become ever more difficult to address. This is a bill that has been subjected to a listening exercise, extensive consultation and a report by Steve Field, chairman of the Future Forum, redrafting by Parliament, more than 100 hours of debate, and dedicated efforts by the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, and the Liberal Democrat minister of state for social care, Paul Burstow, to amend it to meet the worries Lib

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 10 Comments
Mark Pack

“Prime Minister David Cameron’s Liberal Democrat deputy has quietly emerged as the more successful Whitehall operator”

By Mark Pack | Wed 31st August 2011 - 10:00 pm

So writes Paul Goodman in the Daily Telegraph:

That Clegg persuaded his party to cohabit with the Conservatives is a tribute not only to his powers of persistence and his colleagues’ appetite for office, but also to the Coalition Agreement itself. Its importance can be over-stated. The Government has done things that aren’t in it, such as housing benefit cuts. And it won’t do things that are in it, such as postal ballots for primaries. But its carefully crafted terms, approved by a Liberal Democrat team apparently surprised by the co-operation of the Conservative one, achieved many of the party’s objectives.

…

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Mark Pack

Did journalists really not misuse one of the UK’s largest databases of personal contact details?

By Mark Pack | Wed 31st August 2011 - 8:54 am

Here’s a little conundrum for you.

Imagine you are a journalist working on one of the  many titles that the Information Commissioner found was involved in dubious practices to get hold of personal information about people.

Don’t you think it’s quite likely you would now and again have wanted to get hold of someone’s home address? Perhaps to track down someone to doorstep them. Or maybe to trawl round the relatives of someone famous to find if anyone is willing to give you an interview.

Now imagine there is a database of people in Britain which is so comprehensive and has been built …

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The Independent View: NHS should routinely offer chicken pox vaccine to children

By David Carter | Mon 25th July 2011 - 2:21 pm

Chicken pox. One of those “mild” childhood illnesses that most of us assume just has to be endured at some point. Sure, it itches like crazy, but what’s the big deal?

That’s how I saw it until two friends of my four-year-old son went down with it in the same month. They described the misery their children went through, the sleepless nights for all the family, the seemingly endless quarantine. And worse: it can put children in hospital, and occasionally even kill them.

As the dreaded varicella zoster virus seemed to creep ever closer to my son’s unprepared immune system, I …

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Posted in The Independent View | Also tagged and | 11 Comments
Paul Burstow

Paul Burstow MP writes: Keeping competition in its box

By Paul Burstow | Thu 14th July 2011 - 9:06 am

Mention the words “competition” and “the NHS”, and you will often get the same two responses. A misapprehension which confuses competition with privatisation. But also an instinctive desire to reject new providers in order to protect the NHS. We understand this reaction, and we understand why people are cautious about competition.

The creation of the NHS is a cherished part of the liberal story. It was a liberal, working in a Coalition, who first imagined the NHS and its values of healthcare available to all, free at point of delivery, based on clinical need, not ability to pay. That’s why Nick Clegg has consistently made it crystal clear that we will never privatise the NHS. And why you will never have to pay for your NHS care under our watch.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 25 Comments
Paul Walter

PMQs: Since when is the NHS a “micro” issue?

By Paul Walter | Wed 29th June 2011 - 8:53 pm

A bit of a surprise at Prime MInister’s Questions. I expected Ed Miliband to ask about public sector pensions and the strike tomorrow. It was a bit odd when he asked about the NHS. Cameron later said that Miliband couldn’t fire off questions on the strikes subject “because he is in the pocket of the unions.” He also rather cheaply accused Miliband of fighting shy of Greece “because his plan is to make Britain like Greece.”

Then, Cameron reach his climax with a line which must have been honed over much midnight oil in Downing Street:

He has to talk about

…

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Posted in News and PMQs | Also tagged , , , and | 7 Comments
Nick T

Where next for Lib Dem ‘muscular liberalism’?

By Nick T | Mon 20th June 2011 - 10:25 am

Over on the BBC News site, BBC political correspondent Norman Smith has written a piece looking at how the Liberal Democrats will continue to exert their influence in a more public way within the coalition after the combined effect of the AV referendum, the local election results and the success of the party’s push to re-think the NHS reforms.

As Norman says:

From the top to the bottom of the party, there is a hankering for clear yellow lines running through government policy.

However, where those lines should be drawn to best reassert the Lib Dems’ independence, is much harder to agree.

There …

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Helen Flynn

Opinion: It shouldn’t just be about the NHS

By Helen Flynn | Thu 16th June 2011 - 4:15 pm

As an education campaigner and someone who believes in the principles behind the NHS, I have been following the news about the changes we have managed to make to the health bill with interest, and, obviously, pleasure that we have made a difference.

But when are we going to get our collective heads out of the sand when it comes to the privatisation of state education, where “any willing provider” that we were all so horrified about when proposed in the health bill is already rampaging through the education sector?

It will not be long, believe me, where we are seen as …

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Helen Duffett

LibLink | Shirley Williams: After all the arguments, where next for the NHS?

By Helen Duffett | Thu 16th June 2011 - 11:22 am

Shirley Williams writes in the Times today of her strong support for Future Forum’s recommendations for NHS reform, and suggests that listening exercises may be the way forward for future policy-setting:

Like many others, I was sceptical about the listening exercise. It seemed to me a way for the Government to win time so that it could rethink its proposals for NHS reform in the light of great scepticism from medical organisations, distinguished think-tanks, health service managers and staff, and, not least, doctors.

My concerns were not justified. The Future Forum, chaired by Professor Steve Field, himself for many

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , , , and | 2 Comments
John Alderdice

Lord Alderdice writes: The NHS Bill is substantially improved

By John Alderdice | Tue 14th June 2011 - 4:24 pm

As Liberal Democrats we are reformist by instinct and as in every other area of our community life we want to see reform of the NHS, not only to enable it to deal with the major resource and demographic challenges of the next twenty years, but also to ensure that it is more clinician-led, patient-centred and outcome-focussed than it has ever been before. That is why our MPs supported the principles of the Secretary of State’s original NHS Bill when it came to 2nd Reading in the House of Commons.

Our very public concerns have centred round whether the precise organizational …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 25 Comments
Helen Duffett

Nick Clegg’s speech on NHS reforms: “We’ve listened, we’ve learned”

By Helen Duffett | Tue 14th June 2011 - 12:15 pm

Nick Clegg has given a speech today at a joint press conference with David Cameron and Andrew Lansley, on NHS reform and the results of the listening exercise.

This comes on the morning that a Telegraph leader declared:

The Lib Dem conference changed everything. Grass roots activists made it clear to Nick Clegg that they would not accept the wider involvement of the private sector championed by Mr Lansley or what they considered to be his undue emphasis on competition. Ever since, the reforms have been in trouble and the three-month “pause” ordered by Mr Cameron sealed their fate. The NHS

…

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Posted in News and Speeches | Also tagged , , and | 5 Comments
The Voice

LibLink | Shirley Williams: Lib Dems should take credit for thwarting Lansley

By The Voice | Mon 13th June 2011 - 10:19 am

Shirley Williams, writing today in the Independent, says that the Liberal Democrats can be proud of their influence on NHS reforms:

Liberal Democrats, from our party’s grassroots to its leadership, can be proud of the influence we have exerted to change the Government’s NHS plans. It is clear now that the proposals that will be taken forward are dramatically different to those originally proposed.

The implications of Andrew Lansley’s massive health proposals, setting England’s health system on the path to a market in health care rather than a public service, were very slow to sink in. The complex, extensive and sometimes almost

…

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Mark Pack

Tamed and reshaped – Clegg on the NHS White Paper

By Mark Pack | Sun 12th June 2011 - 10:11 am

Speaking last night at an excellent anniversary dinner to mark 25 years (yes, 25 years) of Liberal Democrat control on Sutton Council, Nick Clegg said the party has been successful in taming and reshaping the NHS reform plans.

The run of political and electoral success achieved by Liberal Democrats in Sutton is, as Clegg pointed out, a standing answer to anyone who doubts that you can achieve and then hold political power whilst continuing campaigning and staying true to your liberal roots. One of the key people in that success was Ruth Shaw, who Nick Clegg personally presented with the 2010 …

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Mark Pack

It’s a busy Saturday for the spinners

By Mark Pack | Sat 11th June 2011 - 10:21 am

With the new version of the government’s health plans due out on Monday or Tuesday, expect tomorrow’s papers to be full of pre-briefing from the different camps – the pro-Lansley Tories, the rest of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

The first of that trio are likely to have by far the toughest, verging on implausible, task given the major changes coming to the original NHS plans. The bigger media battle is between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats (or Cameron and Clegg if you prefer your politics in distilled personalised format) over the relative credit for those changes.

The news from the Liberal …

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Mark Pack

What I would have liked to hear Paul Burstow say more of this week

By Mark Pack | Thu 2nd June 2011 - 9:57 pm

You might think it’s a small point, and it’s certainly not only applicable to Paul Burstow.

But in all the fallout since Panorama’s harrowing documentary this week, what a shame that so little has been said to praise the whistleblower who didn’t just try blowing the whistle once but again and again until he finally had success.

It’s been good to see Paul Burstow face up to the issue in the media and promise quick action to learn the relevant lessons. But no system is perfect and we’re always going to be reliant on whistleblowers as a crucial safety net.

It’s a …

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