Foundation trusts “will pressure regulator to allow changes to licence”

The debate over foundation hospitals was reignited this week when members of the House of Lords and delegates at the Trades Union Congress attacked the proposed legislation, claiming it spelt disaster for the NHS.

Allyson Pollock, professor of public health policy at University College London, said ahead of a debate at the TUC conference in Brighton on Tuesday, that MPs and Department of Health officials were only just waking up to the potential impact of the Health and Social Care Bill. The lack of safeguards in the bill to stop foundation hospitals doing exactly what they wanted is “devastating,” she said.

Professor Pollock has been examining the “arcane and technical” proposed legislation with Foundation Trust Concern, a coalition of more than 15 organisations including the Association of Community Health Councils for England and Wales, several trade unions, and …