(Independent UK) David Cameron will announce this week another humiliating climbdown, putting the brakes on the Government's health reforms in a desperate attempt to rescue his reputation as a defender of the NHS.
In the latest embarrassing example of the Prime Minister being forced to intervene in the policy of one of his ministers, Mr Cameron will publicly admit to mistakes in the plan by the Secretary of State, Andrew Lansley, to hand £80bn of health spending to family doctors, characterised by critics as privatisation by the back door.
Mr Cameron will announce a "pause" of up to three months in the progress of the Health and Social Care Bill through Parliament, to allow for more time to reassure clinicians, patients and coalition MPs. One option being considered is a series of public meetings at which Mr Lansley would be forced to restate the case for reform in a less confrontational manner.
Mr Cameron is expected to share a platform this week with Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, in an attempt to stave off a Liberal Democrat revolt. They will seek to reassure patients who fear the break-up of the NHS and the loss of free care at the point of use. The plan to replace primary care trusts and strategic health authorities in England with hundreds of GP-led consortia by 2013 has been almost universally criticised by doctors, nurses, unions, patient groups and senior Tories and Lib Dems, from Norman Tebbit to Shirley Williams. ..............(more)
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