NHS Reorganisation

I will not give way, because I am about to end my speech. In their addiction to meddling, the Government turn to reorganisation whenever they face a crisis or their latest headline grabbing wheeze turns out—predictably—to disappoint. For all that, we see PCTs being forced to merge when there is as yet no clarity about their purpose. We see the Government clinging to SHAs while, at huge cost to the taxpayer, bringing in consultants to do the job that the SHAs were hired to do when the obvious answer to anyone but an over-proud Government would be to scrap the SHAs. We see ambulance trusts being forced into a dogmatic regionalisation agenda, having to bend to the Government’s will although no one in the service advocates it and although there is no prospect of a better, speedier service for patients. We want better NHS services for our constituents. They do not deserve to suffer the cuts that are being forced on PCTs and other trusts to get the Government off the hook of the failure of their policies and their financial mismanagement of the PCTs, SHAs and ambulance trusts that they themselves set up only three years ago. Of course we also want administration costs to be minimised. The way in which to do that is to reduce the amount of administration and bureaucracy, rather than bringing about yet another reorganisation. Our constituents and NHS patients will not fall for the latest Government ploy to mask their own policy failures.