In a Guardian/ICM poll, 52% say that the NHS and Social Care Bill – which will overhaul NHS management, increase competition and give GP's more financial responsibility – should be dropped. That is against 33% who believe it is better to stick with the plans at this stage. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/20/conservative-support-shrinks-voters-nhs?mobile-redirect=false
Nonetheless, even before the Bill has progressed through Parliament, the Government is pressing on with implementing its reforms with 240 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG's) already established ready to take on £65bn a year of NHS spending from April 2013.
The 152 local NHS primary care trusts (PCTs) that currently manage most of the NHS budget in England have been thrown into turmoil and have merged at a senior managerial level to form 51 clusters with thousands of staff facing redundancy. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/health-16986808
The Con Dem stealth mission to pre-empt the statutory process puts into perspective the challenge facing the health unions and Labour Party campaigning hard to 'Stop the Bill' in Parliament but as each day passes facing a fait accompli.
