The Government is keeping the implications of the planned US-EU trade deal for the NHS a secret from Parliament and the public, Lord Owen has said.

Healthcare is included in a deal that will make service provision contracts irreversible by future governments, the independent peer said.

Lord Owen proposed legislation to stop ministers making trade deals that affect NHS provision without parliamentary approval.

Five weeks before the next G8 Summit, Lord Owen said there was a “conspiracy of silence” about the dangers to the NHS of the EU-US trade deal – which he had already described as the real reason for the Government’s NHS reforms.

Unlike the Canadian EU trade negotiations, he said, the proposed deal does not exclude healthcare provision. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, David Cameron stated that “everything must be on the table” in the negotiations.

Investment protection would be extended to all the UK healthcare provision contracts that American private companies expect to have gained by 2015. That would make it impossible for future governments to revoke these contracts without incurring major financial penalties.

Lord Owen presented a short NHS Reinstatement Bill, part of which seeks to make it impossible for UK ministers to sign trade agreements affecting the NHS without the prior approval of the UK Parliament or the relevant devolved authority.

The new statutory regulations for CCG commissioning will mean that lawyers can overrule clinicians, doctors and legal experts have warned.

While a debate and vote on the new regulations in the House of Lords are scheduled for 24 April, campaigners have warned that they will lead inevitably to a full privatisation of the NHS.

Explicitly intended to ensure that CCGs obey the principles of the Health and Social Care Act, the new regulations make it possible for private providers to challenge commissioning decisions on the basis of business law.

The Department of Health, which revised the regulations following protests from the medical professions, insists that CCGs will have the authority to decide which services are put out to tender.

However, legal experts have stated that the decisions of CCGs will be vulnerable to legal challenges from private providers, since the ‘any qualified provider’ concept places commissioning within a business law framework.

Lord Hunt (pictured), Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords, has tabled a ‘fatal motion’ against the new commissioning regulations that could temporarily block its passage into law.

Crossbench peer Lord Owen accused the Government of using “specious grounds of urgency” to drive through legislation that contradicts its own principle of ensuring ‘clinically led commissioning’.

According to Dr Kambiz Boomla, a GP in East London, “These regulations are likely to be the death of clinically led commissioning, and the birth of lawyer led commissioning.”

Clare Gerada, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, similarly warned that the new regulations will “remove the legal framework” for a “universal” and “democratically accountable” NHS.

The Health and Social Care Bill has passed its final reading in the House of Lords and is now only days from becoming law.

The final vote in the House of Commons today will follow an emergency debate forced by the opposition.

An attempt to delay the Lords vote until the publication of the risk register for the planned NHS reforms was defeated by Conservative and Lib Dem peers.

During the final Lords debate, 25 protests against the Health Bill took place across the UK.

A motion tabled by Labour peer Baroness Thornton called for the Bill to be dropped because it did not have the support of patients, clinicians or the public and would drive the “fragmentation and marketisation” of the health service.

It was defeated by 269 votes to 174, with the support of only one Lib Dem peer.

A further motion by crossbench peer Lord Owen, calling for the Bill’s third Lords reading to be delayed pending the publication of the NHS transition risk register, was defeated by 328 votes to 213.

The Freedom of Information Tribunal recently upheld the decision by the Information Commissioner that the risk register, which the Government has now withheld for 15 months, must be published.

Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham commented that it was “highly unsatisfactory” for the information about the risks of the Bill’s implementation to be denied to MPs until after their final vote.

“Parliament has a right to know, before it is asked to make a final judgment that will have huge implications for every person in this country,” he said.

However, Health Minister Earl Howe (pictured) told the Lords that considering the transition risk register to offer some “deep insight into what this bill means for the NHS” was “an absurd proposition”.

Labour has forced a 90-minute emergency debate today on whether MPs can approve the Bill before the risk assessment has been published.

If approved by the Commons today, the Bill could receive Royal Assent and become law later this week.

More than 2,000 uniformed healthcare professionals and patients have filled Central Hall Westminster in opposition against the Government’s controversial Health and Social Care Bill.

The All Together for the NHS campaign, organised by the TUC, saw an alliance of union members and high-profile individuals from royal colleges and professional groups rally against the reforms.

Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary, said in a speech at the rally it was “vital that we make our voice heard” and the Health Bill was the “biggest threat our NHS has ever seen”.

In one of more than 30 speeches, Mr Barber said the campaign aimed to maintain a “publicly-accountable health service, for the values that make our NHS special, and for the ethos of public service itself.”

“I want the message to go out loud and clear that our NHS is not for sale, not today, not tomorrow, and not ever,” he said.

“The Bill will also mean privatisation on a huge scale, with our health service opened up to competition by any willing provider. Private firms will profit by cherry-picking the easiest, most lucrative work – leaving the taxpayer to pick up the tab for everything else. That is simply not acceptable.”

He added that the reforms were “wrong for patients, wrong for the public, and wrong for Britain”.

The Prime Minister, Mr Barber said, also needs to understand that he will pay a “devastating political price” if he presses ahead with the “ill-conceived, reckless, expensive Bill”.

“We will not allow this government to destroy what has taken generations to build,” he insisted.

Other speakers at the rally included the comedian Jo Brand, who used to work as a psychiatric nurse, Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham MP, crossbench Peer Lord Owen, Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George, UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis and BMA Chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum.

Dave Prentis commented that patients will face growing waiting lists if the controversial legislation continues its passage to Royal Assent. “Introducing competition into the NHS will usher in private companies,” he said. “They will put profit before patients. Where you have competition you have winners and losers and it will mean that patients are hit as some hospitals close. Taking the cap off the number of private patients that can be treated by a hospital means that those who can pay will go to the front of the queue.”

The Health and Social Care Bill is set to continue its progress after the Government won two key votes in the House of Lords.

Peers voted 330 to 262 against an amendment to refer parts of the Bill to a special select committee and also rejected an amendment to block the legislation altogether.

Ministers say that the votes show the Bill now has wide spread support but the BMA has again called for it to be “withdrawn” or “substantially amended”.

A line by line examination of the Government’s controversial reforms will now begin in the House of Lords on 25 October. Labour has said it will again “fight” the proposals despite the outcome of the votes.

The amendment to block the Bill was put forward by Labour peer and former GP Lord Rea, who argued that it was never a manifesto by either the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats. It was rejected 354 votes to 220.

Attempts to delay the progress of the Bill, which Lord Howe said my “prove fatal” to the NHS, were tabled by two crossbench peers, Lords Owen and Hennessy. The two called for its referral to a special select committee, which would have allowed witnesses and experts to provide evidence on the proposals after concerns were raised about the responsibility of the health secretary and the role of the NHS’ regulator Monitor in promoting competition.

A spokesman for the DH says decision by Lords “moves us one step closer to delivering a world-class health service that puts patients at its heart and hands more power to health professionals”.

But Andy Burnham, Labour’s recently appointed Shadow Health Secretary, says hearts “sunk around the NHS” when the Bill survived the votes and the Government is “digging in for the long haul” as it faces more opposition.

Doctors’ leader Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of the BMA, says it continues to have concerns about “many areas” of the Bill and says the council will continue to raise its opposition “at every available opportunity”.

Dr Meldrum called for an assurance that patients’ choice of provider of care would not be given priority over the development of integrated services and fair access.

“We also need to see an explicit provision that the Secretary of State will retain ultimate responsibility for the provision of comprehensive health services. In addition, we continue to have significant concerns over the arrangements for public health and education and training and we will be looking to see improvements made in these areas too.”

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The Health and Social Care Bill has cleared another political hurdle: the House of Lords has voted not to refer it to a select committee and not to block the Bill outright.

The Health Bill will now proceed to a normal House of Lords committee stage.

The BMA, who lobbied peers to reject the Bill, have continued to call for the Government’s NHS reform plan to be withdrawn or “substantially amended”.

The amendment calling for referral to a select committee, which would allow witnesses to give evidence, was tabled by cross-bench peers Lords Owen and Hennessy. They argued that aspect of the Bill raised serious constitutional issues – specifically in relation to the roles of the Health Secretary and the regulator, Monitor.

According to Lord Owen, a select committee was necessary to examine “the complexity of this new relationship” between patients, clinicians and the DH. He insisted that the select committee would not prevent the Bill completing its trajectory on schedule.

However, Health Minister Lord Howe denied that the market reforms threatened the integrity of the NHS, and claimed that any delay “could well prove fatal” to the necessary timing – as the changes are already under way.

The Lords voted 330 to 262 against the amendment. They also voted 354 to 220 against an amendment put forward by Labour peer Lord Rea to block the Bill on the grounds that it ran contrary to both Conservative and Liberal Democrat manifesto commitments.

Recently-appointed Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said Labour would continue to oppose the Bill: “It will be debated now over a number of weeks, even months, in the House of Lords – line by line, clause by clause – and Labour will be wanting changes to this bill, substantial and drastic changes to it, so this is far from over.”

The BMA had written to every peer urging them to block the Health Bill as “dangerous”. PM David Cameron responded by claiming the Bill had the broad support of the medical profession, while Health Secretary Andrew Lansley claimed the critics were “politically motivated”. The BMA has rejected both claims.

Following the House of Lords vote, Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of the BMA Council, commented: “The BMA continues to have many areas of concern, including the need for assurance that increasing patients’ choice of provider for specific elements of their care won’t be given priority over the development of integrated services and fair access. We also need to see an explicit provision that the Secretary of State will retain ultimate responsibility for the provision of comprehensive health services.”

Critics of the Health Bill claim that whereas the first version made privatisation of the NHS an overt political aim, the second version retains it as a covert goal and intended consequence of the legislation.

The Government aims for the Health and Social Care Bill to become law by April 2012, a year before the new Clinical Commissioning Groups are due to take charge of NHS budgets.