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Brown's relaunch scuppered by Labour disarray
Joe Murphy30 Jun 2008
Gordon Brown's attempts to revive his fortunes with a landmark overhaul of the National Health Service was overshadowed today by new Labour disarray.
The Prime Minister was banking on the blueprint for the future of the NHS by surgeon Lord Darzi to re-establish his reform credentials and move the spotlight off his leadership.
But the event, cashing in on the 60th anniversary of the NHS, was undermined by a series of rebellions by Labour MPs, donors and the unions, plus the threat of a by-election disaster in his Scottish redoubt.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson tried to rally supporters this morning - and repair the damage caused by his unwitting comparison of the Prime Minister with a tennis player reluctant to play on Centre Court.
"He will play his matches wherever," insisted Mr Johnson. "He is not interested in being a showbusiness personality."
Mr Brown's record in office would see him through the next election, he added: "People want someone with integrity, decency, intelligence - that's what they get with Gordon."
At Westminster, where the finance Bill was entering its last Commons stages, Labour MPs were pressing for firm signals that the Government would make concessions over plans to hit family cars with higher excise duty. They also want a more generous compensation package for those who lost out when the 10p tax band was scrapped.
There were also further repercussions from Labour's funding crises. Unions used a "strike" by wealthy Labour donors as the opportunity to demand more workplace rights and higher spending, in return for bailing out party finances.
It was also reported that former Cabinet minister Peter Hain has been interviewed by police investigating the failure by his deputy leadership campaign team to declare gifts from businessmen adding up to £103,000. Mr Hain did not comment on The Times report.
The developments disrupted the launch of Lord Darzi's strategic plans for the NHS, which are meant to show ways to improve the patients' experience, end "postcode lotteries" and deliver better local services.
After a year-long consultation, he is proposing 150 GP-led health centres, dubbed polyclinics; a right for patients to choose where they are treated; new powers for nurses to set up independent local NHS clinics; faster approval of new drugs; more consistent prescribing rules in different areas; and financial incentives for hospitals and GPs who provide the best quality services.
In the foreword to the strategy document, Mr Brown hailed it a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to make the NHS world-beating.
But a YouGov poll of 2,163 people for the Daily Telegraph found only 23 per cent backed Labour to run the NHS, against 31 per cent for the Tories.
• Doctors plan to wreck government reforms for overhauling the NHS by refusing to carry out the radical measures.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson will today outline sweeping changes including 150 "supersurgeries"- or polyclinics - to replace single-handed GP practices, more power to nurses, specialist treatment centres across London and a special "bill of rights" for patients.
Nurses will be allowed to opt out of the health service so they can establish notforprofit firms such as those offering school healthcare, physiotherapy and home help.
These represent the most radical changes for decades and are aimed at modernising the health service by giving patients swifter access to specialist care.
But the British Medical Association vehemently opposes the moves, drawn up by health minister Lord Darzi, which they warn will undermine doctor/patient relationshipsand force some London accident-and emergency departments to close. An unprecedented number of official objections will be tabled at their annual conference in Scotland next week.
GPs are expected to back motions calling for an "immediate" halt to the introduction of polyclinics as well as those warning the changes are based on a "flawed" consultation process and will lead to a " fragmentation" in services.
Doctors representing BMA members in Islington will warn that the plans will "destroy" London's ability to respond effectively to incidents such as terror attacks.
The Edgware and Hendon branch will table a motion condemning the consultation process as a "stage-managed sham".
This attack will further undermine the hostile relationship between GPs and ministers, especially in the week of the 60th anniversary of the NHS.
The BMA has presented a petition to Downing Street, signed by a million people, opposing polyclinics and private companies taking over doctors surgeries.
But health chiefs revealed that the BMA has been the only union which has refused to attend meetings to discuss reforms.
NHS London chief executive Ruth Carnall told the Standard: "Part of the problem with the BMA is the implication that they represent absolutely everyone. We've invited them to meetings but they don't come, despite the fact all the other trade unions do."
