The BMA is facing mounting opposition to its policy of critical engagement with the government, with calls for the organisation to oppose the Health and Social Care Bill in its entirety.

The BMA’s emergency meeting on the bill, to be held on 15 March, is likely to see a heated debate over the union’s stance so far. Several motions have been submitted to the special representative meeting urging the union to actively oppose health secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans.

North East Regional Council has submitted a motion stating that, “the mutually reinforcing market based policies enshrined within the Health and Social Care Bill are ideologically driven and will undermine the founding principles of the NHS leading to increasing fragmentation and privatisation of the English NHS; and since these market based policies are the fundamental pillars of the bill and its objectives, we call upon the BMA to oppose the bill in its entirety.”

Clive Peedell, a consultant clinical oncologist, a BMA council member and co-chair of the NHS Consultants’ Association, told the …