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Shadow health secretary warns moves to privatise hospitals will ‘drive a wedge’ – but still place for private sector in other areas John Healey, the shadow health secretary, has pledged that a Labour government would ensure NHS hospitals remain in public sector hands as he rounded on government plans to open up all parts of the NHS to private companies. Healey also seized on the crisis witnessed at Southern Cross care homes earlier this year to admit that Labour “did not act before” against predatory fund managers who saw “elderly people as commodities”. But he promised that a future Labour government would do so by regulating the care home sector not just on the basis of best care standards but also on “best business practices”. Healey delivered a combative speech to the Labour party conference in Liverpool after delegates debated a motion condemning the government’s controversial health and social care bill as unnecessary and representing “the biggest top-down reorganisation in the history of the NHS at a time when finances are squeezed”. Despite changes to the bill, the motion stated that health professionals are still opposed to it “because the essential elements … remain in place, which will fragment the NHS through exposing the NHS to the full force of EU and UK competition law with a commercial regulated market designed to give the impression of patent choice”. The new NHS commissioning board will be “the largest quango the world has ever seen”, it said. Healey warned that the battle was “not over” against the legislative plans in the health and social care bill, which would break up the national service and set it up as a “full scale market, ruled for the first time by the full of competition law”. Accusing David Cameron of betrayal, he said. “No one wants this. No one voted for this.” He said the proposals threatened to destroy Labour’s “golden legacy” to NHS patients, as he hailed the founding of the NHS under a post-war Labour government, and the great improvements he said patients saw under the party’s 13 years in power through investment and reform. Referring to reports that ministers were privately eyeing up the “huge opportunities for the private sector”, Healey said any move to privatise NHS hospitals would drive a wedge between hospitals and the wider health service as private companies driven by the bottom line to make profits would refuse to collaborate with others. But he ruled out barring private sector involvement in any shape in the NHS. Healey, whose predecessors introduced independent treatment centres, said Labour believed there would always be an important contribution for non-NHS providers, “including private providers” in the NHS, but as supplements to, not substitutes for, the NHS. But loud applause followed when he drew a line on private companies moving in to run NHS hospitals. “Hospitals are at the heart of our NHS. They should be in public not private hands, dedicated totally to patients, not profits. So we will oppose any move to privatise NHS hospitals. We will guarantee under Labour that the NHS hospitals remain in the NHS.” Signalling that further reforms would be implemented by a future Labour party in office, he unveiled plans for developing integrated care organisations to allow primary secondary and social care to work together. But he ruled out a role for the private sector on this front too. “Because our values demand we’re not neutral on who provides care, we will look to promote those that share a true social ethos over those driven by narrow commercial interests.” “We make this pledge not because we want no change in the NHS but because we need greater change. Because our health and care system must reform, and must retain the faith of all who need and use it.” However the prospect of further reforms under Labour is unlikely to be well received by health care unions, who complained about the constant changes introduced by Labour during its 13 years in power. Healey rehearsed ground trodden by Labour leader Ed Miliband in his keynote speech on Tuesday , by accusing Cameron of a litany of “broken promises” on the NHS. “He’s breaking each and every one of his personal NHS promises,” said Healey. “Protect the NHS – broken. Give the NHS a real rise in funding – broken. Stop top-down reorganisations – broken. Big time.” Healey went on: “That’s why people are starting to see the NHS go backwards again with the Tories. Services cut; treatments denied; long waiting times up. We’ve seen over a million patients suffer long waits for treatment under David Cameron, breaking Labour’s guarantees to patients.” “The NHS was built by the people. It is cherished by the people. It belongs to the people. Let us tell David Cameron today. We will give voice to the dissent of people who heard your promises, saw your posters; people who wanted to believe you before the election but are now seeing the truth. You can’t trust the Tories with our NHS. Bevan said ‘the NHS will last as long as there are folk with the faith to fight for it’. Conference, this is our faith. Our fight.” The Conservatives dismissed the speech as vacuous. Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, said: “With no announcements, and no vision for the NHS, Labour resorted today to nothing more than ludicrous scare-mongering. The simple truth is that waiting times have come down since the general election and we are committed to making sure they remain stable. “Labour failed to answer any of the questions they needed to today – and John Healey refused to condemn his Welsh Labour colleagues who are slashing the NHS budget by 8.3%. “Labour spent the last decade loading the NHS with debt, and would now be cutting it by £30bn. If Labour were ever allowed to run the NHS again, they would run it into the ground.” A panel debate staged at the party conference before Healey’s speech heard from Roger Boyle, former national clinical director at the Department of Health, who resigned in July, raised his concerns about the plans outlined in the health legislative plans. He told the party conference he had worked for a long list of health secretaries under Labour – Alan Milburn, John Reid, Patricia Hewitt, Alan Johnson and Andy Burnham, but referring to Andrew Lansley, he said: “I find the current incumbent rather more difficult. I resigned in July. I did not think there was a democratic mandate to do this, to do the things they are proposing to do.” Delegates spoke passionately in the afternoon debate on the NHS motion, which calls on Labour to “step up local and national campaigning activity” against the health bill and to continue to oppose it in the Lords. Martin Rathfelder of Labour’s National Policy Forum said: “There is never enough money to pay for everything we do in health. All health services are rationed. The beauty of the British health service is that money is not an advantage and poverty is not a disadvantage.” But under the coalition’s plans “we will see more rationing, we will see more queues, but not for the rich. If you need IVF it might not be available on the NHS but it’s available if you go private, and we will see more of that.” The motion also deplores the collapse of the care home company Southern Cross and the abuse at the Winterbourne View care home, saying the government has “failed to regulate the social care sector in a way which protected residents, gave support to their relatives and ensured taxpayers’ money was accountable”. It calls for the government to publish a full list of all operators and landlords receiving “any part of the billions of taxpayers’ funding provided for residential care which is finding its way into private sector companies”. Sharon Holder of the GMB union, a former home help for elderly, sick and dying people, told the conference: “The scandal of Southern Cross is a mere taster for the future of social care … the textbook of how unscrupulous profiteers can make riches from vulnerable people.” Healey told delegates that people’s confidence had been shaken by the crisis at Southern Cross for some of the most vulnerable in society. “We did not act before, but we will in the future,” he said. “So we will regulate for the best business practices as well as the best care standards.” NHS Labour conference Healthcare industry Labour Ed Miliband Andrew Lansley David Cameron Southern Cross Healthcare Health Trade unions Paul Owen Hélène Mulholland Randeep Ramesh guardian.co.uk