Andrew Lansley forced into major climbdown on planned health reforms
The health secretary will perform a dramatic climbdown over his reforms this week in a desperate attempt to prevent a cross-party revolt among peers who fear that the changes would lead to the fragmentation of the NHS.
Amid growing concern in Downing Street that health policy is becoming the government's achilles heel, ministers will table a series of amendments to the health and social care bill that will oblige Andrew Lansley to maintain the NHS as a national public service and, his critics say, limit his ambitions to expand the role of the private sector.
The changes will also spell out the kind of services that must be offered by GPs and will effectively ban them from withholding certain forms of care from patients.
On Saturday Labour's health spokesman in the House of Lords, Baroness Thornton, described the move as a "massive climbdown" by Lansley. But she said the bill still remained deeply flawed and that attention would turn to clauses dealing with plans to increase competition when it returns to the Lords next month.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jan/28/andrew-lansley-nhs-health-reform-climbdown
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