Artists for the NHS

Is this it?

So is this it? As the Daily Mirror reports today there’s 24 hours left to save the NHS and one final, unlikely roll of the dice. Today was the day that Lansley expected the Bill to become law but Labour have forced one last emergency debate, based on the fact that Lansley still refuses to publish the Risk Register associated with the Bill. But it’s deeply unlikely that most Liberal Democrats (with honorable exceptions) will stand up against the Bill.

And when this last debate fails, that’ll be curtains for the NHS as you know it. As campaigning doctors like Dr Jonathon Tomlinson and Dr Clive Peedell, have shown, this is the culmination of a process that will change the NHS to a market economy.

A fitting day then for a great poster by Mark Titchner using one of Cameron’s most bare-faced lies: “I’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS”.

What next? The Coalition hopes that as the Bill is made law, everyone will quietly forget the protesting doctors, health workers and organizations. But as implementation takes place, and every postcode lottery screw-up  and every sign of a two-tier NHS emerges, that’s probably an unlikely wish.

Back to the Stone Age

The latest two additions to opposition to the Bill are surprising. Firstly there’s the grassroots of the Liberal Democrat party who defied Nick Clegg and Shirley Williams (unfortunately playing the part of Clegg’s useful idiot) and refused to endorse the Health and Social Bill at the weekend’s Liberal Democrat Conference. As newspapers that range from the Guardian to the Daily Mail pointed out, this now means even the Conservative’s Coalition partners do not support the Bill.

The second new bit of opposition comes from perhaps even an even unlikelier source – the Royal College of Surgeons. Unlikely, because surgeons have been the most enthusiastic supporters of the Bill amongst the medical profession, because they do the most private work and stand to gain the most.

All eyes now turn to the Commons tomorrow where Labour have forced a Commons debate on dropping the Bill. If the Tories ram the Bill through the face of numerous and extraordinary-varied opposition, our NHS will be bombed back to the Stone Age – a situation aptly depicted today by Steve Claydon’s fantastic poster.

Here come the Lib Dems! Or, erm, perhaps not.

This weekend is all about the Liberal Democrat conference where the delegates want to talk about the NHS and the hierarchy don’t. And as Clegg covers himself in more odure by threatening to ignore delegates, it’s easy to forget that the Lib Dems did well last year at conference to question the Bill and ask for amendments. Here’s a good account by former Lib Dem MP Dr Evan Harris on why the revised Bill has sufficiently taken on board those key amendments. Harris’s advice is to drop the Bill.

However the Lib Dem hierarchy, in particular Shirley Williams, have worked themselves into a lather because they think writers, bloggers and journalists are being nasty to them. And even more bizarrely Liberal Democrat peers voted against amendments in the House of Lords this week that they had previously proposed. It’s fair to say that the Liberal Democrat hierarchy right now is confused, angry and if you’re Nick Clegg or Shirley Williams filled with a peculiarly angry sort of self-loathing. The type of people you can rely on when it’s last chance saloon? Let’s face it, probably not.

So what we need to cheer us up is Ruairiadh O’Connell’s colourful image of David Cameron being strangled by a St John’s insignia.

Last chance saloon

Artists for the NHS was at the Rally to Save our NHS last night - check out the pictures above. But things are looking pretty grim - the Lords today voted to allow NHS hospitals to be able to give 49% of their beds and resources over to the private sector. Next Tuesday Labour will force a vote in the Commons with the very slim hope that Liberal Democrats will join them - and as Andy Burnham said last night this will be the last chance to stop the Bill hitting the statute books.

Twenty days and counting…

If Westminster rumours are to be believed there are only twenty days to go before the Government tries to ram the Health & Social Care Bill onto the statute books. And today the British Medical Association (BMA) has said that the Bill is “complex, incoherent and not fit for purpose.”

A good analysis of how treatments which are now free will gradually disappear from the NHS is here. Things will change drastically unless this Bill is stopped - something which Hannah Sawtell’s extraordinary chilling poster conveys brilliantly.