By Tim Shipman
Last updated at 1:43 AM on 27th December 2011
Healthcare reforms: Health Secretary Andrew Lansley wants NHS hospitals to take on more private work
NHS hospitals will be allowed to earn up to half their income from private healthcare work under a blueprint for reform slipped out by the Government before Christmas.
Ministers have put in place plans to raise the cap on what foundation hospitals can earn from private patients from just a few per cent at present to 49 per cent.
Under amendments to the Health Bill, all NHS hospitals will have a legal requirement to treat Health Service patients first.
But Health Secretary Andrew Lansley wants foundation hospitals to be able to raise more money from performing operations on private patients and to plough the profits back into NHS care.
NHS trusts that are not foundation hospitals are currently allowed to do as much private work as they want.
But the plans to give similar freedoms to foundation trusts last night provoked howls of protest from Liberal Democrats, signalling a new coalition spat over healthcare.
Foundation hospitals are part of the NHS but are free to manage themselves.
They were created as a means of improving standards at hospitals, by allowing health chiefs and local communities to run their own medical services.
Most NHS trusts are now foundation trusts and this will soon become all under NHS reforms.
Mr Lansley has already had to make compromises to his Bill, which will also hand more power to GPs to commission healthcare, after a rebellion by senior Lib Dems in the Lords, including former Cabinet minister Baroness Williams.
Mr Lansley had previously made clear that the cap for foundation hospitals would be lifted but had not spelt out how high, provoking fears it could be 100 per cent.
Senior government sources said last night that the plans are designed to resolve a problem created when Tony Blair created foundation hospitals.
The rules then restricted the amount of private work performed by foundation trusts to what they were doing at the time – usually around 2 or 3 per cent of their total income.
Cradle to the grave: Labour yesterday accused the Government of trying to create a two-tier healthcare system
But details of the proposals put Mr Lansley on collision course with the Lib Dems. John Pugh, the MP who chairs the Lib Dems' backbench committee on health policy, said: 'The Conservatives over a period of time appear to want to substantially reduce the role of the state.
'Blurring the boundaries between public and private provision is part of a programme to curtail or end the state's role in the provision of public services.'
Labour went into the last general election pledging to increase the amount of private work done by NHS hospitals.
But yesterday Labour accused the Government of creating a two-tier NHS. Health spokesman Andy Burnham said: 'This surprise move, sneaked out just before Christmas, is the clearest sign yet of David Cameron's determination to turn our precious NHS into a U.S.-style commercial system, where hospitals are more interested in profits than people.
'It takes us straight back to the bad old days of the Tory NHS, when the only choice patients had was to wait longer or pay to go private.'
Mr Lansley rejected the claims last night: 'Lifting the private income cap for foundation hospitals will directly benefit NHS patients.
'If these hospitals earn additional income from private work that means there will be more money available to invest in NHS services.
'Furthermore services for NHS patients will be safeguarded because foundation hospitals core legal duty will be to care for them.'
In a nutshell .He who pays the piper calls the tune
- Trader, South west, 27/12/2011 06:20
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