|
|
Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Tonge: ‘ . . I am a simple soul . . I [am] a barefoot doctor trying to protect patients and my staff from the ravages of health service reorganisation . . ’
November 12, 2011 8:08 PM
• [Nov 09] Baroness Tonge (Liberal Democrat): MY Lords, I intend to be very brief because we have already had a long debate, but I am bursting to say something. We have heard very erudite and learned speeches, not least from my noble friend Lord Marks, who put the situation very clearly. However, I am a simple soul. I told your Lordships at Second Reading that I was a barefoot doctor trying to protect patients and my staff from the ravages of health service reorganisation, and I want to try to tell the Committee briefly how they see the combination of these two clauses.
If Clause 4 were adopted, that could lead to different sorts of health services all over the country. Provision would not be equal throughout the country and people would not like that. On the other hand, if Clause 1 were amended after discussion to make sure that the Secretary of State had a duty to provide certain services, that would rule out Clause 4-there would no longer be autonomy because, as I understand it, the Secretary of State would be able to say, "No, you must provide this tariff of services".
The noble Lord, Lord Warner, pointed out this afternoon-it was a long time ago now-that Clauses 1 and 4 do not affect just each other. They affect other clauses in the Bill, such as Clauses 17 and 20. An awful lot in this Bill is affected and it all interacts. That leads me of course to say: will the Government please go home, do a bit more homework, look through this Bill and take out all the clauses that are interdependent and cannot be decided until another one has been decided-in other words, start all over again? I fear that this Committee stage is going to degenerate into a sort of mad hatter's tea party and we shall end up with the noble Earl, Lord Howe, taking off his wrist-watch and putting it in his glass of water.
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats
-
Help out or donate
-
Tell us what you think