VIEWPOINT FOR 6 MARCH 2008
FROM DR RICHARD TAYLOR

The main business in the House recently has been the Treaty of Lisbon and the European Union (Amendment) Bill. There have been motions to disagree with aspects of the Bill and then Committee stages to dissect amendments in varying amounts of detail. No Government back bench rebellions have been large enough to carry any of the amendments but I am writing this before deadline and the vital session on Wednesday afternoon which will debate the holding of a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon.

The amendment to which I added my name proposed a referendum asking two questions:

(a) "Should the United Kingdom retain its membership of the European Union?"

(b) "If it remains a member of the EU, should the UK approve the Lisbon Treaty?"

I thought these two questions would allow the majority of people who, I believe, wish to remain in Europe, but not to be taken over by European rules, to express their preferences. It is being said that everyone who wants a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty really wants to get out of Europe altogether which is not the case as this would have made clear.

However I understand, at the time of writing, that this amendment has not been selected for debate which means that it has fallen before it has started. I think the only amendment will be for a referendum with the single question:

"Should the United Kingdom approve the Lisbon Treaty?"

I will vote for this amendment as everyone who has written to me has stated their support for a referendum as promised in Party manifestos. I hope to speak to express an independent view but I am not optimistic about being called.

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At my meeting with representatives of Wyre Forest GPs on 22 February after their concerns about the effects of extended opening hours on the quality of care they are able to give, they were greatly worried by the Government's move towards contracting for GP services with commercial organisations, thus leading to privatization of large sections of primary care. 
The Government appears to believe that as long as the patient does not pay for health care we have a national health service. They do not seem to understand that the true National Health Service must be provided by a nationally uniform group of providers in primary and secondary care, as we have now, without any motives of profit for themselves. This is going to be a major battle to fight for the NHS that we have known and loved since 1948.

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We are approaching the end of Patient Forums as the official bodies to express users' and the public's views about health services to local health trusts. 
The bodies to take over will be called Local Involvement Networks (LINks) (sic) and there is widespread concern that these are only vague ideas at the moment and that Local Authorities whose responsibility it is to organize 'host' bodies for LINks are not sufficiently prepared to have these replacement groups in place immediately. I am yet to be convinced that transitional arrangements are adequate.

R.T.