Health Secretary will have ultimate control

The Government is publishing scores of amendments to the Health & Social Care Bill ahead of its return to the House of Lords, promising that the health secretary will retain ultimate responsibility for delivering, or securing the delivery of, the health service in England.

This has been a key concern of opponents, and one the Government has addressed before – for example, in its response to the first NHS Future Forum report after the ‘pause’, it said: “ We will also make clear that the Secretary of State will retain ultimate accountability for securing the provision of services, though rather than securing services directly, the Secretary of State will be exercising his duty in future through his relationship with the NHS bodies to be established through the Bill, for example the NHS Commissioning Board by way of the ‘mandate’.”

The new amendments will “explicitly clarify that the secretary of state retains ministerial responsibility to Parliament for the provision of the health service in England”, it is reported.

The Bill has met widespread opposition among the main health unions and most medical royal colleges, as well as from the Labour party.

The new amendments also cover patients’ influence in how health services are commissioned, and the priority for medical research.

Another amendment will “clarify how CCGs and the NHS Commissioning Board must involve patients in making decisions about their care and treatment”. The Government will also “further strengthen the Bill to make it clear that the health regulator, Monitor, will have the power to require healthcare providers to cooperate, and actively support integration”.

Furthermore, it will “strengthen the duties on the Secretary of State, the Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups with regard to research, requiring each to promote research and the use of evidence obtained from research.”

In a letter to the Telegraph, 365 senior doctors refuted the claim that the majority of GPs supported the Bill. Over 90% of those polled by the Royal College of General Practitioners stated that the Bill should be withdrawn.

They wrote: “As GPs, we agree that clinicians need more involvement in planning the NHS, and that the health service needs to improve. We don’t need a Bill to achieve that. Drop the Bill and let’s work on the real issues: improving safety, efficiency, and quality of care.”

A Department of Health spokesman said: “Any reform causes controversy and there is always going to be disagreement about the best way to modernise the NHS. Our reforms devolve power away from managers, and to front line doctors and nurses, where it belongs.”