17.07.12
Fighting old battles
Labour’s promise today to repeal the Health & Social Care Act – or ‘the Bill’ as Andy Burnham insists on calling it – criticises the Government for damaging and distracting restructuring of the NHS.
The party has also stated it will end top-down reorganisations of the health service; something that sounds eerily familiar.
Firstly, the level of trust citizens hold in politicians when it comes to the health service has plummeted.
And the proposition makes little sense – the reorganisation is already full throttle. Repealing the Act now, or in three years time once the dust has settled, is equivalent to another huge restructuring; the very thing Burnham seeks to avoid.
The time for arguing over the legislation is over and the sooner this is accepted, the sooner policy makers can begin work to improve and implement the changes as best as they can.
Simply attacking the reforms over and over is no longer enough. Labour should be concentrating on how to face the future and salvage the health service, not just regurgitating empty promises about a battle which ended months ago.
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