THE lead article last week about the Health and Social Care Bill told an interesting

story.

Geoffrey Cox MP has supported the Bill, despite strong reservations from the medical professionals whom the Bill is supposed to empower.

No-one would object to doctors being more involved in the running of the NHS, but there was an easy way for the Government to achieve this: simply appoint more doctors to the boards of PCTs which administer local NHS budgets.

Instead, the Government has chosen to abolish PCTs and build a new organisation, at a cost of £3-billion — money that could have been spent on patient care.

Will the new system actually empower doctors? It's unlikely, as no doctors have enough time on their hands to negotiate and administer contracts worth millions of pounds.

In reality doctors will outsource the work to management consultancy firms like KPMG. It's the management consultants who will call the shots in the future. They will tell your GP whether he or she can afford to give you the treatment you need.

So if the new system is just a façade, why is the Government pursuing it?

The answer is simple. The Conservative Party believes in small government. The NHS is a big drain on public finances. The ultimate aim is to replace it with a US-style insurance system. But the NHS is popular, so its abolition must be done step-by-step and surreptitiously.

Step one is nearing completion: outsource NHS administration. In the next step, expect to see NHS hospitals given up to the private sector.

Of course the greatest tragedy is that the Liberal Democrats, who used to be ardent NHS supporters, sold their souls and the NHS for six seats at the Cabinet table.

Brendan S Bold

Yelverton