How the secretary of state for health proposes to abolish the NHS in England.
Allyson M Pollock, professor ,David Price, senior research fellow
This is an absolutely essential article from the BMJ publised yesterday. You need to have an athens login or be a subscriber to access all of it.
The article explains how,
In order to create a commercial market the government has repealed the health secretary’s duty to provide or secure the provision of comprehensive care and has abolished the structures and mechanisms which follow from this duty. It has granted new powers and financial incentives to corporate commissioners and investors to redefine eligibility and entitlement for NHS funded care, select out profitable patients and services, and introduce regressive funding through patient charges and private healthcare.
The authors explain the processes and present the evidence. The part I have reproduced below is at the end of the article and is particulaly pertinent for politicians, many of whom are baffled by the details, but are concerned like all of us to ensure that the NHS continues to provide comprehensive, equitable, affordable health care for all of their constituents.
Amendments to ensure continuation of NHS comprehensive healthcare
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Restore the duty of the secretary of state for health to provide or secure the provision of comprehensive healthcare throughout England to such extent as he or she considers necessary to meet all reasonable requirements
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Impose a duty on general practice commissioning consortiums to provide comprehensive healthcare for all residents in geographically defined areas and fund them accordingly and on the basis of need
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Impose a duty on the NHS Commissioning Board to retain and further develop a system of resource allocation based on the healthcare needs of all residents of geographically coterminous areas
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Withdraw the power granted to commissioners to charge for healthcare services and reserve the power to the health secretary
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Remove health services from jurisdiction of competition law
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Require the health secretary to ensure continuity of patient care through administrative and financial integration of provider services under the jurisdiction of geographically defined consortiums (as in Scotland and Wales)
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Impose a duty on the health secretary to protect professional autonomy and increase direct public accountability
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Impose a duty on the health secretary to abolish financial incentives to create and distribute surpluses by underspending patient care budgets
A Better NHS 
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Thank you Johnny for publshing these
This is a very important time for the NHS
If Clause 1 is removed – and CGC’s begin to flex their muscles with respect to their new-found powers, we have essentially lost an NHS and return to the mixed economy pre 1946. Even now – we have postcode lotteries – however, SOS can still be appealed to and we can still demand the same services in Exeter as in Scunthorpe. This will not be the case with these reforms and some CGCs will make it easier for themselves by selecting patients, adding charges, defining what should and shouldn’t be included in “free” “NHS”care. CGCs will be run by GPs so i have some hope that we wont head down the worst-case scenario immediately – but inevitably we will as money, profits and in the end greed will always triumph.
I have seen the worst of a what a market produces – 70 million in USA have little or no insurance. Please lets not head this route here