Waiting times fear

The Government’s “untested experiment” of NHS Trusts competing with private consortiums threatens longer waiting times, say union leaders.

As the NHS reform bill got a second reading, the GMB — the union for health staff — revealed that the average waiting time for NHS patients in England last May was 8.4 weeks with 92.9 per cent of patients treated within 18 weeks of being referred.

In the North-West, the average waiting time was 8.1 weeks with 93.8 per cent treated within 18 weeks.

The Health and Social Care Bill will replace Primary Care Trusts with GP consortiums responsible for purchasing NHS services from “any willing provider” in the public or private sector.

The union says a record 73 per cent of people said they were “satisfied” with the NHS before the General Election.

The GMB’s national officer for health, Rehana Azam, said: “Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s untested experiment — throwing the NHS into cost-cutting competition with private consortiums — is going to strangle the life out of it.

“There is an old maxim in politics ‘if it’s not broke don’t fix it’.

“It is something of a disgrace that the Government is prepared to experiment with the running of a life-and-death service”.