High Peak Liberal DemocratsFollowing the overwhelming vote at the Liberal Democrat Spring Party Conference for significant amendments to Andrew Lansley's NHS reforms, the future of the NHS Bill is under discussion at the top of Government.
We have said very clearly as a party, that we will not accept the marketisation of the NHS and that we want proper local democratic accountability and scrutiny of NHS commissioning . Nick and his colleagues must understand the absolute political imperative to get these changes. It will be a real boost for us to demonstrate that we do act as a restraint on the excessive market-based ideology of the Conservatives and that where a policy is not in the Coalition Agreement and is one which we as a party cannot support, then we will not accept having a whip imposed on our MPs to vote it through.
It is important to make absolutely clear to the Conservatives and to the media that we as a party will not be ignored on this issue. So - following careful consultation with external independent health policy and NHS experts and in close consultation with Shirley Williams and other key players - the movers of the amendment at Party Conference have published a list of the specific changes that are needed to comply with the Coalition Agreement and the conference motion as amended. The Party's Federal Policy Committee last week broadly endorsed its contents and it has been welcomed by John Pugh MP, the Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Health Committee.
We are hoping that as many Lib Dem members as possible will sign up to the statement of support set out below. The Social Liberal Forum is hosting the statement and you can sign up at http://socialliberal.net/sign-the-statement/. You do not need to be a member of the Social Liberal forum to sign up. The full list of the required changes to the bill can be seen there also.
The more signatures we have, the more we can make clear that the Liberal Democrats will not accept the NHS Bill in its current form and the more we will strengthen the position of Nick and our MPs in the discussions.
Please sign up today and please circulate this email to other party members.
Best wishes,
Dr Evan Harris, Vice-Chair Federal Pollcy Committee
Dr Charles West, Proposer of Health Motion amendment at the Party Conference
Dr Graham Winyard, former medical director of the NHS
Our Federal Party Conference last month overwhelmingly backed a call from Shirley Williams, Dr Evan Harris and 150 others, calling for Andrew Lansley's health reforms to be significantly amended to bring the policy back in line with the agreed Coalition Agreement and with Lib Dem principles.
Specifically we seek amendments to:
The changes to the health bill required by conference are set out in full here. They do not preclude other changes that may be needed but which were not covered by the conference motion as amended.
We are calling on our party's leadership to fully respect the declared view of the Party on this matter and insist on all these changes in the health policy in any discussions with the Conservatives.
We believe it would be unacceptable for Liberal Democrat MPs and peers to be whipped to vote against conference policy and to vote in support of Tory policies that were not included the coalition agreement and that we have democratically rejected.
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