Opposition Day — NHS Competition Policy — 5 Feb 2014 at 15:50

The majority of MPs voted for the Government's policies for regulated competition within the NHS.

The majority of MPs voted to delete a motion calling for the Government to reverse its changes to NHS competition policy and to replace it with a motion stating:

• This House:
• notes the strong performance of NHS accident and emergency departments this winter;
• further notes that the average waiting time to be seen in A&E has more than halved since 2010;
• commends the hard work of NHS staff who are seeing more people and carrying out more operations every year since May 2010;
• notes that this has been supported by the Government’s decision to protect the NHS budget and to shift resources to frontline patient care, delivering 12,000 more clinical staff and 23,000 fewer administrators;
• welcomes changes to the GP contract which restore the personal link between doctors and their most vulnerable patients;
• welcomes the announcement of the Better Care Fund which designates £3.8 billion to join up health and care provision and the Integration Pioneers to provide better care closer to home;
• believes that clinicians are in the best position to make judgements about the most appropriate care for their patients;
• notes that rules on tendering are no different to the rules that applied to primary care trusts; and, a year on from the publication of the Francis Report,
• notes that the NHS is placing an increased emphasis on compassionate care, integration, transparency, safe staffing and patient safety

There was no substantive call for action in the replacement motion.

Debate in Parliament | Source |