NHS reforms have 'hell of a lot wrong' - Lord Winston

Lord Robert Winston has slammed the government’s Health and Social Care Bill saying there was “a hell of a lot wrong with it” and said it did not address patients basic medical needs.

Lord Winston, who is perhaps best known for The Human Body series, criticised the government's listening exercise and suggested Prime Minister David Cameron was potentially being disingenuous in the reasons for the reforms.

However, he expects the Bill to eventually be passed by the House of Lords as the chamber does not believe it has the democratic right to block it, despite neither coalition party saying they intended to legislate before the election.

Lord Winston, Professor of Science and Society at Imperial College, revealed the first chance for Lords to debate the Bill will have to wait until next week after its planned second reading yesterday was postponed again.

Speaking at a Jelf Employment Seminar, he criticised the government's approach to reorganising the NHS and questioned whether it was actually necessary.

"The Bill is 700 pages," he said.

"I've been in the Lords 17 years and I've never handled a Bill that large and when there's a Bill that large you know there's a hell of a lot wrong with it.

"Different people have different concerns which are not being fully addressed by government and in spite of the so called listening exercise; there hasn't been any serious public engagement.

"So I suspect most people don't understand what commissioning really means - which is critical given that's what it's about," he added.

Lord Winston highlighted three particular problems apparent in the legislation that he felt could have a significant impact on the NHS.

"The risk of increasing privatisation is one," he said.

"Most people also don't understand the point about European regulation which means patients from Europe will have access to services, perhaps preferentially if their governments are prepared to pay those sums of money, and that will disadvantage British patients unless European regulations are changed - which I suspect they won't be.

"And it misses out on the basic medical needs. What you need from a doctor is not choice, it's a doctor that talks to you in a language you understand and listens to your answer and accepts your anxiety and attempts to address those," he added.

Lord Winston also noted that companies could have a growing role in supporting individual's healthcare and he accused Andrew Lansley, the Secretary of State for Health, of "scary talk" about the future spending of the NHS, instead saying the service provides pretty "good value" and predicted increases were manageable.

Having suggested that delegates "may think David Cameron is being quite disingenuous when he says we need to do something about the NHS," Lord Winston referenced several studies that contradicted the Prime Minister's view the NHS was performing badly and so needed reform.

This included a study by the Commonwealth Fund which rated much of the NHS results higher than those in the US, Canada and Germany and that NHS funding was below many European neighbours despite increased spending during the Labour administration.