Labour leaders are defeated over foundation hospitals

The government's plans for foundation hospitals suffered a major setback last week when delegates at the Labour party conference in Bournemouth voted to reject the policy, but the health secretary, John Reid, said he would not be deterred from pushing the Health and Social Care Bill through parliament.

Figure 1.

John Reid: The government is leading “the most extraordinary effort in history to help people out of pain”

Credit: AP PHOTO/RICHARD LEWIS

A motion by the public services union Unison said the proposed reforms would “fragment the [NHS], widen inequalities, and undermine the collaborative principles now being re-established.” It also said the government was not honouring its 1997 manifesto promise to end the internal market in the NHS.

The motion was passed by a show of hands, with a clear enough margin that no card vote was needed.

A second motion put forward by government loyalists that praised “devolution” in the NHS while condemning privatisation was defeated by 55% to 40% after a card vote. The defeat came despite an emotive speech by John Reid, who said the government was leading “the most extraordinary effort in history to help ordinary people out of pain.”

“If your child or your mother was in pain,” he asked rhetorically, “and the means to relieve it quicker were available free at the point of need, would you refuse them it? I wouldn't.”

Party members have voted against the prime minister's policy on two previous occasions in the Blair era, but this was the first time legislation that is currently before parliament has been rejected by the conference. This week the bill goes into committee stage in the House of Lords, and some opponents predict that the government will trim its content to smooth its passage.