BMA vote for Health and Social Care Bill to be withdrawn

From Clive Peedell:

Dear all,
We have had a passionate and lively debate at BMA Council today about the Health and Social Care Bill

The following motion proposed by myself and seconded by Jacky Davis was debated.

That this meeting of Council
(a) recognises the medical profession’s lack of support for the Health and Social Care Bill CARRIED
(b) recognises the lack of support from the majority of GPs for involvement in GP/clinical commissioning as proposed in the Health and Social Care Bill CARRIED
(c) rejects the idea that the Government’s proposed changes to the bill will significantly reduce the risk of further marketisation and privatisation of the NHS CARRIED
(d) agrees that the Government is misleading the public by repeatedly stating that there will be “no privatisation of the NHS” CARRIED
(e) calls for the BMA to start a public campaign to call for the withdrawal of the Health and Social Care Bill CARRIED
(f) calls on the BMA to ballot the membership with regard to the BMA taking a position of opposing the bill, rather than critical engagement LOST* 

*An amendment to change ‘ballot’ to ‘survey’ was accepted, but that part of the motion was still rejected 

This was an excellent outcome for us. We now have a mandate for a campaign to call for the bill to be withdrawn 
Thanks to you all for your continued help and support. The fight goes on….. 

Also reported in the Guardian

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