Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, I will be very brief but I think this is quite an important amendment. I did not think it was so important as little as three or six months ago but it is particularly important now. This Bill was born in a time of relative affluence when the National Health Service saw huge increases in expenditure. We are going into a period which may be very different indeed. There are going to be all kinds of new pressures exerted on health service budgets with people crying out from every section of the health service for an increased share of the cake. A matter of only months ago we may not have thought that this would be a problem in the future. This needs regular review over and above pilots. Over the next couple of weeks before Third Reading additional consideration should be given to the principle behind this amendment. I know my noble friend will have to reject it now, but I appeal to him to ask his civil servants and his department to consider the period that we are going into and the new pressures which none of us, at this stage, is able to predict with any certainty.