A FORMER MP is disheartened by a decision to open hospital doors to the private sector which he says could mean the beginning of the end of the NHS as we know it.

Dr Richard Taylor, a former MP for Wyre Forest and ex-hospital consultant, is concerned at the Government’s decision to remove the cap on the amount of private income which foundation trusts can earn as part of the health and social care bill, now at the report stage in the House of Commons.

Foundation trusts are NHS trusts which have greater freedom from central control and can forge closer links with the private sector to provide health services.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust and the Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust all have plans to become foundation trusts.

A Labour motion calling for the cap on private earnings to be retained was defeated by 292 votes to 239 votes on Tuesday night and Dr Taylor said that the Labour opposition had been ‘inadequate’.

He said: “The more private sector involvement that you get, the more advantage there is for the people with money, the more of a disadvantage for those without.

“The huge risk of removing the cap on the amount of private income that foundation trusts have is that the Government intends all hospitals to be foundation trusts.

“As hospitals are desperate to make more money in this time of financial hardship they will be encouraged to take more and more private patients and squeeze out NHS patients and certainly increase waiting lists for NHS patients.”

Dr Taylor said he was also concerned that the bill would mean GP clinical commissioning groups, who are in the process of taking over NHS budgets, could also contract out their duties to private firms, creating a potential conflict of interest.

He said: “The worry about more private sector involvement is that it moves away from the level playing field that Bevan founded in 1948 by making common pay scales. The private sector would not have common pay scales.”

Dr Taylor also said the decision to abolish primary care trusts, including NHS Worcestershire, had resulted in the organisations losing staff before the changes had even been approved by Parliament and that plans to remove strategic health authorities would mean post code lotteries of care would ‘go wild’.

He said: “Yes, this could be the end of the NHS as we know it.”

During the debate health minister Simon Burns said that getting rid of the cap would remove unfair curbs on trusts and health secretary Andrew Lansley said the reforms introduced additional safeguards against privatisation.