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the NHS and Social Care bill amendments

Publicwhip (under new management) have now published the divisions. It is worth explaining the meaning of the amendment divisions pushed by Labour (as what they saw as the key issues).

Delay the abolition of Strategic Health Authorities I cannot understand the argument for delaying the abolition. Either they are worth keeping or should go. I also don't know why Labour really pushed this one. It shows quite a bureaucratic mentality.

replace "secure" with "provide or secure". This was one of the debates floating around driven in part by 38 degrees who have not helped their credibility. Basically the proposal is that if a new hospital is needed that the Secretary of State sets up a new NHS trust which provides the services. The amendment argued that potentially the Secretary of State should directly provide the services. I don't quite get the idea of that given that commissioning has been the approach for the NHS for decades. Hence it was really an unnecessary amendment.

Nadine Dorries' advice amendment The principle that independent advice should be available was important, but stopping BPAS and the like from giving advice was silly. It also wasn't something to deal with in primary legislation. She managed to lose more support by speaking for far too long and she even managed to get Frank Field to vote against the amendment.

Quite a spectacular own goal really.

This article explains why Frank Field was supporting her (until she spoke in the commons)

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