MP’s health reforms attack

Oldham’s newest MP has grilled the Prime Minister about his plans to abolish primary care trusts and give local GPs control over health spending.

Debbie Abrahams, who represents Oldham East and Saddleworth, used Prime Minister’s Questions this week to accuse David Cameron of “window dressing” his reforms ahead of local council elections on May 5.

Mr Cameron has called for a pause in the pace of reforms, but Mrs Abrahams said despite that he has brought forward the plans for a Greater Manchester cluster of GPs who will run the primary health services from June 1 to May 3.

She asked him: “Is this pause nothing more than window dressing? It is political manoeuvring before next week’s elections.”

But the Prime Minister told her: “This is a genuine exercise in trying to ensure that we get the very best out of these reforms. We are looking specifically at areas such as public accountability, choice and competition, education and training, and the patient involvement aspects of the reforms.

“Of course we have to go ahead with driving out the bureaucracy and additional costs from the NHS. We inherited from Labour a £20 billion efficiency programme, and we have got to take that through, but there is a genuine opportunity to make these reforms better still.”