Nearly 2000 amendments are not enough to save health bill, says BMA

The BMA has said that the government needs to go back to the drawing board with its plans for the NHS if care of patients and efficiency are to improve.

Last week the Department of Health announced a further 137 amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill in addition to the 1800 already tabled (BMJ 2012;344:e859, doi:10.1136/bmj.e859). But these have done little to tackle the problems underlying the bill, which remains fundamentally flawed and should be withdrawn, says the BMA in a briefing paper to peers ahead of the report stage in the House of Lords, which starts on 8 February.

Nearly all BMJ readers who responded to an online poll last …