Anger as new wave of foundation hospitals is announced

Unison will be scanning the business plans for foundation hospitals as they seek an ‘inside track’ on the highly controversial policy.

Now that the bill setting up foundation hospitals has limped through the Commons, the time has come to ‘take stock’, says Unison’s head of health Karen Jennings.

She added: ‘We will see who are the successful applicants and provide our members with experience, knowledge and expertise so that they are on the inside track and can influence policy development’.

Whenever there were new applications Unison would oppose them and it would be ‘looking very closely at business plans’, she added.

Mr Reid announced 32 more foundation hospitals to add to the existing 25 just days after the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill secured the smallest majority in the Commons since 1997 by promising a review of the ‘first waves’.

During the debate Mr Reid offered MPs the concession of a temporary suspension on granting foundation status to further hospitals between autumn 2004 and autumn 2005 while the ‘first waves’ of foundation hospitals were evaluated by the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (CHAI).

Ms Jennings attacked this as a ‘deeply cynical move’. She said she was not confident of the independent nature of the promised CHAI review and that it would be ‘meaningless’ without an assessment of the wider impact of foundation hospitals on neighbouring hospitals.

Opponents of foundation trusts are angry that the bill may have been squeezed through because of a play on words. Chair of the Commons health select committee David Hinchcliffe said: ‘A significant number of Labour MPs got the impression from the secretary of state that the CHAI review would be undertaken after the first wave of 25 began and before any further trusts were approved’.

Former health minister Frank Dobson said: ‘A number of people who voted with the government thought anything beyond the first wave would be postponed. A number of people who abstained or supported the government on the basis of assurances may have some concerns about the latest announcements’.

Dr Ian Gibson, a Labour MP who voted against the bill, said: ‘We’re putting in place a blueprint for the eventual privatisation of the health service. We’re moving rapidly towards a situation where the health service becomes an insurance scheme.’