Health and Social Care Bill

I could not resist adding my name to this wonderfully brave amendment which would, at a stroke, give strategic health authorities a backstop when they are beleaguered by local politics and would like to intervene more than they feel able to do for all kinds of local reasons. If you had the commission coming in and saying, ““Well, it has got to happen””, it would be wonderful if PCTs thought they might lose their ability to carry on purchasing lousy services and that something might happen if they did not improve. I am very attracted to the amendment but I am not optimistic that the Government would be entirely happy with it. It would have a wonderful impact on the providers and purchasers if, through the Bill, the commission had strong intervention powers in trusts and foundation trusts. This kind of intervention power on the commissioning side would be a miracle.