The chair of Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group, Sam Everington, has written to David Cameron calling for him to withdraw the controversial Health and Social Care Bill.

Mr Everington claims that local commissioning decisions already take place within his area and “an act of Parliament is not needed to make this happen” throughout the country.

In the letter posted on the internet, he said his CCG shares the concerns of the Royal College of General Practitioners and the British Medical Association in opposing the Bill.

“The Board of NHS Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group ask you to reflect and to withdraw the Health and Social Care Bill,” he said.

“Supporting improvements in the quality of patient care is our passion and focus. We support a strong role for clinical involvement in commissioning decisions that lead to better health outcomes for our patients. We do this already in Tower Hamlets.

“Tower Hamlets primary care team has a long tradition and reputation for innovation and commitment to partnership working with patients and managers. We make the best of any challenges that come our way. Innovations include real improvements in the health of our patients with chronic illnesses like diabetes, the highest childhood vaccination rates in London, and an exemplary local out of hours service, delivered by our GPs and highly valued by patients.”

Mr Everington added that his CCG already works in partnership with the local community and health services “to improve and integrate services for the benefit of our patients”. The GP said that it was “against this background that we represent the views of our local GPs in asking you to withdraw the Bill”.

“Clinicians, patients and managers in Tower Hamlets are determined to improve health and well-being, but your rolling restructuring of the NHS compromises our ability to focus on what really counts – improving quality of services for patients, and ensuring value for money during a period of financial restraint,” he said.

“We care deeply about the patients that we see every day and we believe the improvements we all want to see in the NHS can be achieved without the bureaucracy generated by the Bill.”

Prime Minister David Cameron and Health Secretary Andrew Lansley insist the reforms to the NHS are already improving the quality of care within the health service.

The Health Secretary pointed towards figures which show a fall in emergency hospital admissions which, he believes, reflect the decision to give GPs more control over local health budgets.

Mr Lansley said that patients were being treated in more convenient places and the reforms are “safeguarding the NHS for future generations”.

According to the Department of Health, figures show there was a 0.5% decline in emergency hospital admissions last year, reversing the upward trend of the last decade.

Mr Cameron and Mr Lansley are today set to meet select healthcare professionals in an ‘NHS Summit’ in an attempt to convince them the controversial Health Bill will work.

The meeting involves GPs who have already formed Clinical Commissioning Groups and certain Royal Colleges. However, bodies such as the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners, who have both formally opposed the Health Bill, have not been invited.

Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive and General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said that anybody who had voiced concerns over the Bill had been “excluded” and that “we would say that’s not a very sensible way to move forward”.

A Downing Street official said they would not release the full list of invitees, but groups bodies from “health, social care, voluntary organisations and GPs” were amongst the list.

The top-down reorganisation of the NHS is David Cameron’s “biggest single mistake” during his time in office, Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham (pictured) has said.

Mr Burnham claims the decision to combine the challenge to make £20bn of efficiency savings at a time of the biggest reorganisation in the history of the NHS is a “catastrophic error of judgment” by the Coalition Government.

Bringing a day motion on the coalition’s record on the health service, he accused the Prime Minister of breaking promises to push through the Health Bill and using pre-election statements to “help the Conservatives win votes in marginal seats”.

“People will remember only too well, running up to the general election, the then leader of the opposition’s ostentatious shows of affection for the NHS,” said the MP for Leigh. “His airbrushed face on the posters and three very personal promises: real terms increases in every year in this Parliament; no A&E and maternity closures; no top-down re-organisation of the NHS.

“He protested his love for the NHS, and at photocall after photocall on the wards, routinely wore his heart on his sleeve. He was protesting a little too much and today we expose the hollowness of his promises.”

The Shadow Health Secretary added that if Mr Cameron continues with the Health Bill he will “ultimately pay a heavy price for it”. When speaking about his counterpart Andrew Lansley, Mr Burnham also claimed that the controversial Bill was “unravelling before his eyes” and that the health policy introduced by the Government was currently in a chaotic state.

The Government is investing up to £15m to develop specialist prosthetic and rehabilitation centres for military veterans who have lost a limb in service.

Following a review led by Dr Andrew Murrison MP, the programme aims to improve the NHS prosthetic services available to veterans – and ultimately to all amputees in the UK.

The Government will work with service charities and clinical specialists to bring together innovative prosthetic technologies and support services.

Up to £15m has been committed from 2012–2015 to support the measures recommended by the Murrison report, including:

• National commissioning of specialist prosthetic and rehabilitation services for amputee veterans through a small number of multi-disciplinary centres in England.
• Equivalent and complementary NHS provision to be available to veterans through a Disablement Services Centre (DSC) of their choice.
• A refined system of case management, including a comprehensive statement of needs and prescription on transition to the NHS.
• NICE to produce national guidelines for prosthetic prescription and rehabilitation for all amputees.
• The Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court to become part of a Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre more closely integrated with the NHS.
• A programme of military-civilian exchange and capacity building to develop the specialist prosthetic and rehabilitation network.

“As a country and as a Government we have a particular duty to servicemen and women injured on operational duty,” said Prime Minister David Cameron. “This report maps out a clear strategy for ensuring that those brave people can be confident they will receive the same levels of access to prosthetic limbs and specialist care from the NHS as they do at Headley Court.”

Dr Andrew Murrison MP commented: “I hope the action points I have offered honour the military covenant and benefit military amputees, but I have been clear that they should also help to improve the service available to all limb centre users.”

The Health and Social Care Bill has been passed for the third and final time in the House of Commons yesterday, after a two-day debate.

The Bill, which secured a majority of 65 votes with only four Liberal Democrat MPs voting against it, now goes on the House of Lords.

A major issue of contention was Health Minister Lord Howe’s statement this week that the NHS reforms mean “huge opportunities” for private health providers.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s claim that the Bill now has the support of GPs and nurses was also challenged by relevant professional bodies.

The Government’s ‘listening exercise’ resulted in changes that toned down the Bill’s emphasis on competition between providers – for example, changing the proposed core duty of Monitor from promoting competition to protecting and promoting “the interests of patients”.

However, claims that these changes represented a major policy shift were challenged by Lord Howe’s statement, made this week to a meeting of private health groups in London, that the new legislation would create “huge opportunities” for them.

“I don’t think it should matter one jot whether a patient is looked after by a hospital or a medical professional from the public, private or charitable sector,” he added.

BMA spokesman Dr Laurence Buckman BMA commented: “Lord Howe's comments betray how deep the government's misguided obsession with competition goes.

“Encouraging private providers in, in this way, to compete against other providers will only make it harder for clinicians to work together effectively – and it's that, not competition, which improves patient care and the cost-effectiveness of the NHS.”

In the course of the Commons debate, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley claimed it was “ludicrous scaremongering” to assert that the Health Bill would lead to NHS privatisation, since the NHS would remain a free service.

However, as critics have pointed out, certain aspects of privatisation are indisputably part of the NHS reform programme. The rationing of NHS services – for example, making cataract and orthopaedic surgery available only in the most severe cases – is already a reality, while increasing the role of the private sector in NHS service provision is a firm aspect of Government policy.

The Commons debate revolved around issues that have remained contentious since the first version of the Bill, including provider competition, the role of the National Commissioning Board, and the question of how patient care will be maintained when ‘failing’ Foundation Trusts go out of business.

The chief concern of the Health and Social Care Bill’s critics in the NHS and Parliament remains that it will destabilise the NHS, with provider competition resulting in progressive privatisation.

David Cameron’s claim that the Bill enjoys the support of “the Royal College of GPs, the physicians, the nurses, people working in the health service” prompted criticism from two relevant professional organisations.

• Dr Peter Carter, General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “At a time when the NHS needs to find £20bn in efficiencies, tackle waste, work harder to prevent ill-health and deal with an ageing population, this bill risks creating a new and expensive bureaucracy and fragmenting care.”
• Dr Clare Gerada, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, commented: “We are extremely worried that these reforms will lead to an increase in damaging competition, an increase in health inequalities, and to massively increased costs in implementing this new system.”

While it has won a major political battle in its campaign for market-led NHS reforms, the Government still has to gain the support of those clinicians it has repeatedly claimed it wants only to ‘empower’.

MPs have approved the Health and Social Care Bill following a two-day debate in Parliament.

The Bill, which won a majority of 65 on its third reading, now passes to the House of Lords – where it is expected to face further challenges.

Despite the plans exposing divisions within the coalition – with four Liberal Democrat MPs voting against the reforms – David Cameron defended the proposals, saying: “I believe that they will lead to a stronger NHS and better outcomes for patients.”

But Shadow Health Secretary John Healey said Cameron was ‘undermining’ the NHS with an “incompetent and bureaucratic reorganisation which puts profit before patients.”

The reforms have triggered warnings that the Bill would “destabilise the NHS as we know it,” as written in a letter signed by a collection of members of the Royal Colleges of GPs, Physicians and Midwives.

The letter fueled debates during Prime Ministers Questions, when David Cameron claimed the support of the health care professionals. Mr Healey said: “When experts like the Royal College of GPs and the Royal College of Nursing criticise David Cameron’s Health Bill, he doesn’t just ignore them – he pretends they support him.”

Facing opposition from Labour as well as health care professionals and patients groups, the Bill’s passage through Parliament has been delayed.

Earlier in the year, it was sent back to the Commons for a series of revisions, which included giving medical professionals other than GPs power over NHS funding and ditching the 2013 deadline for introducing new clinical commissioning groups (CCG).

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “Our plans have undergone rigorous scrutiny, led by the NHS Future Forum. They have stood up to the test. No secret plan was unearthed to privatise the NHS, only suggestions put forward to strengthen it.”

However, a significant amendment to the plans regarding the introduction of independent advice concerning abortion was avoided, when MPs overwhelmingly rejected Nadine Dorries’ proposal with 250 votes.

The Conservative backbencher claimed that organisations currently providing counselling profit from encouraging women to terminate pregnancies, something the organisations have denied.

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