Labour leadership defeated on health reforms at party conference

The leadership of the Labour party was defeated on its health policy at last week's annual party conference.

Figure 1.

The secretary of state for health, Patricia Hewitt, says that change is inevitable

Credit: CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/GETTY

The vote at the conference in Manchester ended in defeat for the leadership when most delegates supported a motion from the trade union Unison. The motion called for a slowing down of the pace of reform in the NHS and an end to the growing privatisation of the health service.

It means that Labour party members have called on the government to:

• Give financially troubled NHS trusts more time to achieve financial balance

• Stop any extension of the payment by results system for hospitals, under which hospitals are paid a fixed price for each individual case treated, without a full assessment of the consequences for local health systems

• Review with the party and the NHS any further outsourcing of services to the private sector, such as those of the NHS supplies department, NHS Logistics.

The vote, which does not change official government policy, forces ministers to rethink their approach and to acknowledge opposition. It was timely because simultaneously hundreds of staff from NHS Logistics had formed picket lines at five supply depots in England.

NHS Logistics delivers supplies to the NHS, including medical equipment and food to hospitals. Its employees are striking to protest at the privatisation of the organisation and its transfer to the German delivery firm DHL this week.

The motion called on the government to “rethink the headlong rush to a competitive system” and said, “Immense damage is being done to some local services because of deficits and the breakneck speed of change.”

The general secretary of Unison, Dave Prentis, proposing the motion, condemned the plans to privatise NHS Logistics and the reconfiguration of NHS services, which he said would lead to closures.

“This is about a moral compass that says enough is enough,” said Mr Prentis. “Leave the privatisation and failing markets to the Tories.”

The health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, who also spoke in the debate, called for delegates to reject Mr Prentis's motion because change was inevitable and added, “Any organisation which refuses to make difficult decisions to get back on track is an organisation which in a few years will have to make even more difficult decisions.”