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More than 500 GPs sign petition calling for NHS bill to be withdrawn

5 September 2011

As the government's controversial Health and Social Care Bill faces a crunch parliamentary week, more than 500 GPs have signed a petition calling for the bill's withdrawal.

Unite, the largest union in the country which embraces the Medical Practitioners' Union (MPU), said that the survey results strongly contradicted David Cameron's assertion that the health professions are behind the so-called NHS reform process in England.

Dr Ron Singer, MPU President, said: 'Our survey nails the ministerial canard that because GPs have signed up to Clinical Commissioning Groups (formally GP Consortia), they are supportive of the bill – this is clearly not the case.'

'The reason that GPs have signed up to the groups is to ensure that they have the necessary resources to treat their patients, but does not signify support for the proposed reorganisation of the NHS.'

Unite is very concerned that the government is trying 'to frogmarch' a thousand amendments through the House of Commons in just two days this week during the third reading of the bill, despite continuing concerns among Liberal Democrats led by the veteran Shirley Williams.

Dr Singer said: 'At what is a critical week for the future of the NHS as we know it – a substantial number of commissioning GPs have expressed their anger at the direction of government policy, which, we believe, will herald the large-scale privatisation of the health service.'

The Unite/MPU petition has attracted a total of 505 commissioning GPs, so far, since being launched in July. The petition supports the British Medical Association's (BMA) policy that the bill should be withdrawn.

The petition can be accessed via http://nhs.unitetheunion.org/gp-petition



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