10.10.11
Protestors seek to block Bill
Protestors blocked Westminster Bridge in central London yesterday to demonstrate that they wanted peers to reject the Health & Social Care Bill, due to be debated in the House of Lords this Tuesday.
Around 3,000 health workers, doctors and trade union members participated in the event, and the bridge was closed for two hours. The protest was called Block the Bridge, Block the Bill, and involved banners and people dressed up as medics.
UK Uncut, the anti-cuts group which organised the demonstration, said on Sunday: “Today has brought together doctors, nurses, parents, students, unions, pensioners and children together in an unprecedented act of mass civil disobedience. We are occupying the bridge because the bill would be bad for the NHS, bad for patients and bad for society.”
Last week, Lord Owen and Lord Hennessy called for a special committee to further scrutinize the Bill, and to report back by February. The issues they say need amending concern the role of the Health Secretary and the future democratic control of the NHS.
Opponents believe that about 80 cross benchers and Liberal Democrats will have to vote against the Bill to stall it.
Meanwhile, Andy Burnham, the new Shadow Health Secretary, has written to the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley saying Labour would be prepared to work with the Coalition to give GPs more power to commission NHS services, if the bill itself is dropped.
Burnham said: “It's quite clear that the health secretary has failed to establish a consensus in the country behind his reforms.
“My message to him is please, stop digging in. The more he digs in, the more he is putting our National Health Service in the danger zone. This is a genuine offer that I am making to him – drop your bill and we will work with you constructively to reform NHS commissioning.
“That was the aim that was at the heart of the bill. Let's just focus on that, stick with that and you will have our support in reforming NHS commissioning. But this bill goes far, far wider. It basically turns our wonderful NHS into a free market and we will not have that.”
The Department of Health maintains that the Bill, which has been passed by the Commons, has the support of health workers.
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