Doctors vote for English health bill to be withdrawn

Doctors attending the BMA’s special representative meeting today in London voted overwhelmingly for the withdrawal of the Health and Social Care Bill, saying that the current plans for reform are too extreme and too rushed and will have a negative effect on the care of patients.

Representatives also backed a motion calling on the BMA to lobby against the introduction of legislation that obliges commissioners to always seek “any willing provider” and calling for the NHS to be the preferred provider wherever NHS provision is accepted to be of good quality.

The meeting also called on the health secretary to:

• Call a halt to the proposed top-down reorganisation of the NHS

• Accept that there is no …