Risk of patient safety 'bonfire' with Health Bill changes, Lib Dems say

The Liberal Democrats have urged Andy Burnham to stop the "bonfire of patient safety" under Labour proposals to modernise the NHS in England.

Healthwatch England (HWE), an independent body which represents the views of patients at their local health and social care providers, is set to be scrapped under the government's Health Bill.

The Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB), which carries out patient safety investigations, is also being abolished.

The government says its changes will strip back bureaucracy and improve patient safety.

But the Lib Dems have warned the changes risk another Stafford Hospital scandal – where years of abuse and neglect led to hundreds of unnecessary patient deaths.

A Healthcare Commission report found the scandal – one of the biggest in NHS history – involved at least 400 more deaths than expected between 2005 and 2008.

Under the bill, introduced in May by the Starmer government, Healthwatch's responsibilities will be transferred to integrated care boards (ICBs) and local authorities, meaning they would have to respond to feedback about their own services, rather than being challenged by an independent body.

Last November Andy Burnham, when still mayor of Greater Manchester, co-signed a letter, external to Wes Streeting, then health secretary, opposing the changes to Healthwatch. He said the organisation played a vital role in ensuring patient voices were heard, adding "their independence is central to this".

Separately, HSSIB's functions will be transferred to the government-run Care Quality Commission (CQC), which the Lib Dems argue raises concerns there is no guarantee that staff who raise safety concerns are given anonymity.

Former Conservative Health Secretary Sir Jeremy Hunt has also raised concerns, telling the BBC: "We have made countless representations to the government and cannot understand why they won't budge.

"Scrapping HHSIB won't save money, nor do the CQC really want it," he added.

The Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin, former chair of the Commons Public Administation Committee said: "HSSIB is, as yet, very small and has not had time or money to build up its capacity to have a big impact. Labour supported this when it was implemented, so they have no mandate to do this. Abolishing it now is a major setback for safety in the NHS."

Other measures in the bill include the abolition of NHS England in a bid to centralise the running of health and social care services under the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

The government says this will reduce bureaucracy and allow more resources to be delivered to frontline healthcare services.

The Health Bill is currently at the report stage, with its next scrutiny stage in the House of Commons due on 7 September.

Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Helen Morgan said the bill was "a catastrophic step backwards" and the "greatest backward step in patient safety in a generation".

"Andy Burnham must urgently put an end to this, and fix the Health Bill so that modernising the NHS doesn't come at the expense of accountability, transparency or patient safety," Morgan added.

In a speech on NHS reform in January, then-health secretary Wes Streeting, now defence secretary, said "there are many decent people working at Healthwatch who care, but the job of listening to patients can't be farmed out to an arm's length body".

"It must be core business for the NHS. That is why we're taking it back in-house and I won't back down on that either."

The Lib Dems also said the current bill removes the duty for the NHS to cooperate with the Care Quality Commission in providing key safety data and removes automatic "safe space" protections for whistleblowers.

Amendments tabled by the Liberal Democrats would cancel the changes and the party is "urging the new Burnham administration to adopt them".

The party vowed to robustly fight the government in the House of Lords, where Labour does not have a majority.

A DHSC spokesperson said the bill "explicitly preserves safe space provisions and staff will continue to be protected".

"The reforms we are introducing will give patients a stronger, clearer voice at the heart of health and social care," they added.

Burnham was health secretary in 2009, when the Healthcare Commission's report was released on the Stafford Hospital scandal. Burnham then launched an independent inquiry in 2010.

In May, the Local Government Association (LGA) told the BBC disbanding Healthwatch would be a "significant step back" in accountability.

"Without an independent, locally rooted voice to challenge and represent communities, there is a risk of duplication and gaps in accountability," the LGA said.

There are currently more than 150 local Healthwatch organisations in England.