Health and Social Care Bill (Programme) (No. 4)

The amendment gives us no protection at all, and it gives us no protection from the NHS cross-subsidising private care. There is nothing in the Bill which says, ““The whole costs of the provision of that care have to be reimbursed to the national health service””, as the Financial Times has again demonstrated, and that is why we object to what is happening. We are going back to the old days of the NHS, whereby patients are told, ““You can go private or you can go to the back of the queue and wait longer.”” That is the choice which we removed from the NHS during our 13 years in government, and we will not accept any return of it.