Doctors are thought to planning on seeking a vote of no confidence in the Health Secretary over his plans to reform the NHS.
More than 350 consultants, GPs and junior doctors are expected to attend an emergency British Medical Association meeting next week.
They are expected to call for a public referendum on Andrew Lansley’s plans laid out in the Health and Social Care Bill and to urge that they be scrapped if they do not receive “a clear mandate of support”.
It is also thought that doctors will encourage the BMA to reject the Bill and drop its current policy of “critical engagement” with the health secretary.
It comes after growing anger over the plans from doctors who say the government has ignored concerns over measures in the Bill to increase competition and encourage privatisation.
Copyright © Press Association 2011
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“We are the employers, this service is paid for out of money collected from us, the people who pay National Insurance. We should have the right to call for enquiries into how the health service works and why investigations are not done when a family are worried about how their loved one dies. How many Shipman’s are there in this country? I have my thoughts on this and hope that our wonderful police force who refuse to investigate get the same treatment as many of their ‘patients’. We now need an open and honest investigation into many deaths, especially when the family are not satisfied” – Linda Kirby, Rotherham
“Why is it that doctors only work monday to friday? my dad was admitted on a Friday and is in the full weekend waiting for an assessment on monday morning, what a complete and utter waste of resources and poor outcomes for patients. Everyone else in 2011 works weekends and other less social hours, it’s time the NHS and doctors caught up with the social and financial changes of the 21st century. A hospital bed is an expensive commodity, it’s use as a 48-hour patient parking area must be costing millions per year and achieving nothing. Want to make savings and deliver a better service? Here’s a good place to start” – Stephen Harrison, Hartlepool
“The whole truth here is that NHS trusts in particular have become adept at lying whenever errors are made. Particularly fatal ones. Very adept. The public is sick to the stomach of this obscene state of affairs where everyone (nurses, doctors and so on) are encouraged to lie shamelessly stupidly and transparently whenever a mistake is made. Fed up is a massive
understatement. Let’s devolve power now and quickly. The trusts have had decades to put their house in order and have failed spectacularly, always with the same lying mantra – we do not have the funds” – George Kuchanny, Bristol
“Before scrapping the NHS, we should scrap this useless government with its money before morals attitude. Twice as many brains each and they’d still be morons” – Geoffrey Johnson, Runcorn
“It is not the NHS that needs to be reformed, it is the government. The NHS needs to be run by doctors in partnership with the public. The NHS must not be allowed to become a vehicle of profit for the shareholders of private companies – the public do not fund the NHS to see ever increasing sums being siphoned off into the bottomless pockets of shareholders. In my view Lansley is not ‘the great white hope’; he is a disaster waiting to happen. The proposed reforms must be stopped in their tracks now. I wish the BMA well. It’s time control of the NHS was again in the hands of the
people after all it is our NHS. It’s there to care it is there not for financial gain or profit” – Ronald N Macdonald, Carnoustie
“I believe the damage to NHS with proposed so called reforms would be castrophoric worse than an earthquake as most people will be denied access to good healthcare. Get back to basics. Pay for care. Stop wasting time and energy on form filling, statistics etc. Put every penny where it can be used effectively in curing, aftercare and research. And DO NOT PAY
BONUSES OR REDICULOUS LASRGE SUMS OF MONEY TO ACCOUNTANTS for so called savings!” – June Garland, Powys
“This government has not been in office a year, and already is making drastic changes to the fabric of our country, without any consultation whatsoever. I am 75 and despair for my grandchildren” – Denis Shotton, Lancs
“Who’s running the country, the elected government or doctors? Let’s face it the the NHS in its existing format doesn’t deliver. Time for a change” – P Broon, Edinburgh
“Get real, what did you expect from this bunch of prats? Be interesting to take a look at their shareholding I would have a bob or two that they have shares in private medical companies” – D Brown, Banbury
“The Conservatives are going to destroy the national health system. Their Bill needs scrapping” – Marie Bluff, Sheffield
“This government has all the heart of a bean counter. They see the beans but do not see beyond the jar” – Ken Beauchamp, Islington
“As an elderly person with some health issues I have been increasingly worried by this government’s rush to implement such radical change with no consultation with the electorate, It is another blow to ordinary people who are already dealing with huge cut backs in services etc, frankly we could all do with a bit less bully boy tactics, we realise things have to change but at a rate that that is obscene. I personally detest this bumbling load of turncoats” – Margaret Coates, Rochester
